c^5 


i Tlrrl  l 


>- 


^E-UNIVERS//. 


^^ 


4?      ©  «o 


CElfjv 


& 


^■LIBRARY*?/- 

"ir* 


H> 


^/OdlTVJJO^ 


ER5//, 


<fiUDNYS01^ 


ALITOR 


^EUNIVERS/a 


<TJ13DNV-S0'i 


-« 


R5//, 


S,0r 


ftlWSOl^        %a3AINI 


JVDJO^ 


"% 


X  , — 'P    v  s?     5. 

y0AMii^      y0Aavygn#- 


<Qi30NVS01 


£ 


SO 


.^EUNIVERS/a 

oe  - 
00 


<TJ13DNVS01^ 


^lOSANCElfj^ 


o      u. 


^/sm\m^ 


^t-LIBRARY^ 


^/OJIWJJO^ 


AttEUNIVERS/A 
5  * 


<TiU3NV-S01^ 


^lOSANCELfj> 
o 


^OFCAIIFO/?^ 


mv*       ^Aavaan-^ 


c; 

so 


^UIBRARYQ^       ^UIBRARYQ/^ 


% 


^/OrHlVJJO^ 


£1 


^/OdllVJJO^ 


\WEUNIVERS/a 


DO 
SO 

=0 


oe 


^OFCAUF0%        ^OFCALIF0%  ^WEUNIVERto 


^   ,— 'P     !-£?"«. 

y<?AyvaaiH^      ^Aavaan^- 


>- 


£ 


<Til30NVS01^ 


S 


^WEUNIVERS//, 


v^lOSANCElfx, 


a?. I 


IBRARYQr 


%)-HW)-]Q^ 


Self  and  Sex  Series 
for  men 

BY  SYLVANUS  STALL,  D.D. 

i.  "  What  a  Young  Boy  Ought  to  Know." 

2.  "  What  a  Young  Man  Ought  to  Know." 

3.  "  What  a  Young  Husband  Ought  to  Know." 

4.  "  What  a  Man  of  Forty-five  Ought  to  Know." 

PRICE  Si. 00  EACH 


FOR  WOMEN 

BY  MRS.  MARY  WOOD-ALLEN,  M.D. 


AND 


MRS.  EMMA  F.  A.  DRAKE,  M.D. 

1.  "  What  a  Young  Girl  Ought  to  Know." 

2.  "  What  a  Young  Woman  Ought  to  Know." 

3.  "  What  a  Young  Wife  Ought  to  Know." 

4.  "  What  a  Woman  at  Forty-five  Ought  to  Know." 

PRICE  $1.00  EACH 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

THE  VIR  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1601  Real  Estate  Trust  Building,  -  Philadelphia 


IN  ENGLAND 

THE  VIR  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

7  Imperial  Arcade,  Ludgate  Circus,         -        London,  E.C. 

Price,  4s. 


IN  CANADA 

WILLIAM   BRIGGS 

29-33  Richmond  Street  West,  -  Toronto,  Ontario 


SYLVANUS    STALL,    D.D. 


PRICE  4  s.  NET 
TURITY  AND  TRUTH 


Self  and  Sex  Seiies 


What  a  Man  of  Forty- 
Five  Ought  to  Know 


BY 

SYLVANUS  STALL,  D.D. 

Author  of   "  What  a  Young  Bov  Ought   to   Know,"  "  What 
a   Young    Man   Ought   to  Know,"    "  What   a    Young 
Husband  Ought  to  Know,"  "  Methods  of  Church 
Work"  "  Five-Minute  Object  Sermons  to  Chil- 
dren" "Bible  Selections  for  Daily  Devo- 
tion"  etc.,    Associate    Editor    of 
the  "Lutheran  Observer" 


THE  VIR  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

7,  IMPERIAL   ARCADE,  LUDGATE  CIRCUS 

LONDON,  E.  C. 


LADELPHIA 

TORONTO 

U.  S.  A. 

CANADA 

>    * 

■     i    >       j 
J     '     J               3      i 

1 

Copyright,  1901,  by  SYLVANUS  STALL 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London,  England 

Protected  by  International  copyright  in  Great  Britain  and  all 
her  colonies,  and,  under  the  provisions  of  the  Berne  Con- 
vention, in  Belgium,  France,  Germany,  Italy,  Spain,  Swit- 
zerland, Tunis,  Hayti,  Luxembourg,  Monaco,  Montenegro, 
and  Norway 


All  rights  reserved 


[printed  in  the  united  states] 


7$ 


PREFACE. 

No  apology  is  needed  for  the  issuing 
of  this  book.     Men  of  forty-five  are 
generally  as  ignorant  of  the  changes 
"^       which  attend   those  who  enter  upon 
■£      that  period,  which  has  been  aptly  called 
^      "  the  youth  of  old  age,"  as  boys  of 
fourteen  are  of  the  changes  which  at- 
tend the  period  of  adolescence.     Most 
men   of  forty  have   not   so   much  as 
learned  that  the  physical  nature  of  the 
^     male    undergoes    any   change   at   the 
period   of    middle   life.      Some   know 
*     something  of  the  physical  change  in 
v^     the  life  of  woman,  but  of  its  great  sig- 
x\     nificance,  they  are   largely   ignorant. 
Knowing  so  little  of  these  changes,  the 
V   man  of  middle  life  becomes  a  mystery 
to  himself,  and  fails  to  bring  to  his 
wife   that  intelligence  and  sympathy 
which   would    so   much   mitigate   the 
trials  and  struggles  through  which  she 
passes  during  the  climacteric  period. 

5 


6  PREFACE. 

The  modifications  in  the  physical  na- 
ture of  man  which  are  named  in  this 
volume  do  not  all  come  at  forty-five  or 
even  fifty  years  of  age  to  men  who  are 
in  good  bodily  vigor.  However,  they 
may,  and  oftentimes  do,  come  to  men 
at  a  somewhat  earlier  period  ;  and  that 
all  men  may  be  duly  apprised  of  the 
changes  which  are  sure  to  come  to 
them  sooner  or  later,  we  have  in  the 
following  pages  usually  addressed  our- 
selves to  men  of  about  this  age. 

While  the  consideration  of  the 
changes  which  come  at  middle  life 
and  the  infirmities  which  are  likely  to 
attend  the  closing  period  of  life  is  de- 
pressing in  its  extended  contemplation, 
we  have  sought,  nevertheless,  to  pre- 
sent such  hopeful  and  helpful  features 
of  this  important  subject  as  are  calcu- 
lated to  bring  inspiration  an<^  benefit 
to  those  who  enter  upon  its  changes 
with  intelligence  and  wisdom. 

We  cannot  at  this  time  deny  our- 
selves the  pleasure  of  thanking  the 
thousands  of  noble  men  and  women 
everywhere  whose  hearty  commenda- 


PREFACE.  7 

tions  and  helpful  cooperation  have  al- 
ready secured  for  the  books  in  this 
series  a  circulation  of  nearly  one  hun- 
dred thousand  copies. 

"When  fifteen  years  of  age  God  placed 
in  the  author's  mind  the  primal  thought 
out  of  which  this  series  has  grown. 
Twenty-five  years  ago  the  author  cov- 
enanted to  undertake  this  work,  and 
this  fourth  book  in  the  series  is  sent 
out  with  a  sense  of  profound  gratitude 
to  Him  who  has  led  step  by  step  to- 
ward the  completion  of  this  difficult 
and  delicate  undertaking. 

Sylvanus  Stall. 

Philadelphia,  Pa.,  U.  S.  A., 
January  24,  1901. 


CONTENTS. 


PART  I. 

WHAT  A   MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE  OUGHT 
TO  KNOW  CONCERNING  HIMSELF. 

CHAPTER  I. 
PHYSICAL   CHANGES   IN    MEN   AT   MIDDLE   LIFE. 

The  periods  of  seven  years  in  human  life. — 
Ten  of  these  periods  make  the  biblical 
"  three  score  and  ten. " — Intelligence  suited 
to  each  period. — Prevalent  ignorance  con- 
cerning the  "change  of  life  "  in  men. — Sad 
results  of  such  ignorance. — Reasons  for 
change  in  physical  life  in  man  stated,    .     19-25 

CHAPTER  II. 
EVIDENCES  OP  CHANGE. 
Prevalent  skepticism  concerning  the  climac- 
teric in  men  at  middle  life. — Old  men  who 
become  fathers. — Old  men  who  vaunt  them- 
selves after  they  have  lost  all  sexual  power. 
— Vicious  men  tantalized  by  corrupt  mind 
when  old. — Husband  and  wife  sexually 
complemental. — Together  they  constitute 
a  reproductive  unit. — Masculine  and  femi- 
nine natures  harmonized  and  adjusted  each 
to  the  other. — Corresponding  changes  take 
place  in  both. — Less  marked  in  man. — The 
mating  instinct  universal. — Sexual  inclina- 
tion of  male  and  female  responsive  in  activ- 
ity and  repose. — Harmonious  waxing  in 
early  life. — Harmonious  waning  in  middle 
life. — The  age  at  which  they  occur,  .  27-37 
9 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   III. 

MANIFESTATIONS   OF    THE   CHANGE. 

The  climacteric  of  middle  life  and  period 
of  adolescence  contrasted.  —  Evidences  of 
change  at  middle  life. — Signilicance  of  gray 
hairs. — Slight  lapses  of  memory. — Effect 
upon  the  sight. — Waste  and  repair. — The 
teeth. — Diminished  powers  of  endurance. — 
Sexual  desire  diminishes. — Manifested  at 
longer  intervals. — Enlargement  of  the  pros- 
tat  e  gland. — How  it  manifests  itself. — At 
what  period  these  changes  occur. — How  de- 
layed in  their  manifestation,  .         .     39-45 

CHAPTER   IV. 
THE  TESTIMONY   OF  MEDICAL   MEN. 

Ohservant  men  of  fifty  need  no  testimony  con- 
cerning climacteric  or  "change  of  life." — 
Evidence  only  needed  for  younger  men. — 
The  uniform  testimony  of  medical  author- 
ities.— James  Foster  Scott,  M.  D.,  on  the 
climacteric  changes  in  men  and  women. — 
Statement  of  Dr.  Lyman  B.  Sperry. — The 
strong  statements  of  Dr.  William  Acton,  the 
leading  English  authority. — The  testimony 
of  Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg.—  What  Dr.  George  H. 
Napheys  says  in  his  "  Transmission  of  Life." 
— The  facts  universally  admitted. — Ques- 
tions of  future  well-being  to  be  considered 
in  other  chapters,  ....     47-57 

CHAPTER  V. 

COMPENSATIONS. 

Mental  benefits  which  attend  and  follow  the 
sexual  hush  in  men. — Purer  mind  and 
sweeter  spirit. — Being  able  to  look  sympa- 
thetically both  backward  and  forward. — 
Sense  of  relief  from  perils  past. — The  changes 
in  men  more  gradual  and  less  severe  than  in 


CONTENTS.  11 

women. — The  changes  in  men  fit  them  to 
sympathize  somewhat  with  women. — Phys- 
ical and  intellectual  force  of  many  men  not 
ahated. — After  sexual  modification  many 
men  are  at  their  best. — Time  and  experience 
often  open  their  richest  treasures  to  men  of 
middle  life  and  beyond. — The  statement 
illustrated, 59-68 

CHAPTER  VI. 

MODERATION  ENJOINED. 

Effects  in  different  men  of  the  sexual  hush. — 
Moderation  necessary  in  all  instances. — 
Effect  of  prolonged  mental  effort. — Of  long 
continued  physical  effort. — Effect  of  anxiety 
and  worry. — Dangers  from  lawsuits. — The 
victims  of  social  exactions. — Importance  of 
adequate  rest  and  sleep. — Some  helpful 
suggestions  concerning  insomnia,  .     69-75 

CHAPTER  VII. 
MODERATION   EMPHASIZED. 

Far-reaching  effects  of  sexual  excess  in  middle 
life. — Coition  followed  by  longer  periods  of 
lassitude. — Nature  thus  sounding  her  warn- 
ings.— Moderation  for  husband's  own  well- 
being  and  that  of  wife. — Character  of  the 
moderation  as  shown  by  medical  authori- 
ties. —  Dr.  William  Acton,  of  London, 
quoted. — Experience  in  middle  life  teaches 
moderation. — Vital  exuberance  needed  for 
the  transmission  of  life. — Testimony  of  Dr. 
M.  Parise  of  France. — Changed  character  of 
love  at  middle  life. — Statements  of  Cicero 
and  Plato  on  moderation. —  The  strong 
statements  of  Doctor  Napheys. — Other  med- 
ical men  quoted. — Nature's  punishment  of 
libidinous  old  men. — Some  humiliating  pic- 
tures presented  by  medical  men. — Sowing 
to  the  flesh  and  reaping  corruption,        .     77-92 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

VIRILITY — HOW    DESTROYED,    HOW    PRESERVED. 

Mutual  dependence  of  bodily  vigor  and  viril- 
ity.— Development  of  muscular  strength  vs. 
preservation  of  nervous  force. — How  virile 
power  is  prematurely  sacrificed. — Sexual 
excess. — Relation  of  food  to  virile  power. — 
Effects  of  stimulants. — Effects  of  bodily  dis- 
ease.— Imperfect  mastication  of  food. — In- 
sufficient sleep. — Importance  of  exercise  and 
recreation. — Cycling  and  horseback  riding. 
— Defective  saddles. — Cheerful  companion- 
ship.— Importance  of  well-chosen  occupa- 
tion.— The  comforting  view  for  men  of  mid- 
dle life  to  take  of  physical  changes,      .     93-106 

CHAPTER   IX. 
FUNCTIONAL   DISORDERS. 

Desire  not  to  alarm  or  depress  the  reader. — 
Many  infirmities  avoided  by  intelligence. — 
Relation  of  moderation  to  disorders  of  later 
life. — Physical  and  mental  vigor  for  later 
years. — Why  women  are  less  subject  to  in- 
firmities and  live  longer  than  men. — Sub- 
conscious mind  more  regnant  in  woman. — 
Physical  infirmities  which  are  due  to  vari- 
ous and  dissimilar  uses. — Insanity  in 
men. — Genito-urinary  diseases. —  Relation 
to  venereal  diseases. — Seeking  competent 
and  reliable  medical  counsel,      .         .     107-123 

CHAPTER   X. 

ENLARGEMENT  OF  THE   PROSTATE. 

General  prevalence  among  older  men. — How 
it  manifests  itself. — Hesitation  in  begin- 
ning to  void  the  bladder. — Reduced  force  of 
st  nam. — Location  and  function  or  office  of 
the  prostate. — Conditions  which  attend  its 
enlargement.  —  Relation  of  the  prostate 
gland  to  mental  trouble. — Cause  of  enlarge- 


CONTENTS.  13 

nient. — Irritation  of  the  bladder. — The  sen- 
ior Doctor  Gross  quoted. — Precautionary 
measures. — The.  author's  experience  and 
method  by  which  he  secured  a  gratifying 
measure  of  relief,        ....     125-144 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  MARRIAGE  OF  WEN  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE. 

The  period  ordained  by  nature  for  marriage. 
— Question  of  marriage  at  middle  life,  a 
complex  one. — Disparities  of  age,  culture, 
position,  etc.  —  Conditions  which  follow 
where  one  is  young  and  the  other  has  passed 
the  climacteric  period. — Considerate  views 
of  Doctor  Acton. — Continuance  of  virile 
power  in  old  men. — Diminution  of  sexual 
inclination  and  loss  of  erectile  power. — The 
primal  purpose  of  marriage. — The  right  of 
children  to  be  well  born. — Character  of 
animals  the  product  of  old  sires  and  dams. 
— Physical,  mental  and  moral  character  of 
children  of  aged  parents. — Propriety  of  mar- 
riages induced  by  other  than  physical  con- 
siderations.—Marriages  which  are  justifi- 
able.— Dr.  Dio  Lewis'  letter  to  rich  man  of 
sixty-six  about  to  marry  frivolous  girl  of 
eighteen.  —  Important  advice  of  various 
physicians  quoted,      ....     145-173 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   YEARS   BEYOND. 

The  man  at  forty-five  determines  what  the 
man  at  eighty  shall  be. — A  genial,  com- 
panionable old  age  possible  to  all. — Grow- 
ing old  beautifully.- — Importance  of  well- 
defined  purpose  to  keep  strong  and  bright. 
— The  principles  of  Chauncey  M.  Depew. — 
The  choice  of  exercise. — Gladstone  greater 
at  eighty  than  at  fifty. — "Weak  bodies  com- 
mand, strong  bodies  obey. — Napoleon's 
view  of  physical  strength. — Never  too  old 


14  CONTENTS. 

to  hegin  physical  culture. — Better  to  begin 
early. — Illustrations  of  men  of  power  in  ad- 
vanced years. — William  Cullen  Bryant's 
mode  of  life. — Exercise  in  doors  and  out  of 
doors, 175-189 

PAKT  II. 

WHAT  A   MA1ST  OF   FORTY-FIVE  OUGHT 
TO  KNOW  CONCERNING  HIS  WIFE. 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

REPELLENT    PEOPLE    AND    REPELLENT    PERIODS. 

Husband  should  be  intelligent  concerning  his 
wife  for  his  own  good. — For  her  comfort 
and  well-being  also.  —  Reproduction  the 
great  primal  purpose  in  the  institution  of 
marriage. — The  strength  and  nature  of  the 
amative  inclination. — Repellent  people,  or 
people  devoid  of  sexual  inclination. — Ab- 
sence of  amativeness  recognized  by  children. 
— Advantages  and  disadvantages  of  such 
persons. — The  repellent  periods  of  attractive 
people. — Why  repellent  at  menstrual  period. 
— Why  repellent  after  conception  and  dur- 
ing period  of  gestation. — Universal  homage 
due  and  paid  to  expectant  motherhood  — 
Reproach  of  wives  who  refuse  motherhood. 
— Nature's  method  for  securing  undisturbed 
maternity. — The  third  and  great  repellent 
period, 193-208 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

CHANGE  OF  LIFE  IN   WOMAN. 

Two  great  changes  in  the  physical  life  of 
woman. — The  menopause  or  "change  of 
life." — Regarded  with  apprehension. — The 
menopause  often  brings  blessings. — Con- 
serves physical  powers  for  good  of  individ- 
ual.— Husband  and  wife  complemental  part 


CONTENTS.  15 

of  complete  reproductive  units. — Both  parts 
change  at  corresponding  period. — Disap- 
pearance of  menstruation  only  an  outward 
manifestation. — Changes  in  function  of  the 
ovaries. — The  menstrual  phenomenon  ex- 
plained and  illustrated. — The  reason  for  its 
cessation  made  plain.— The  age  at  which  the 
' ' change  of  life,"  may  be  expected,     .     209-220 

CHAPTER  XV. 

HOW  TO  MEET  THE  MENOPAUSE. 

Importance  of  preparing  for  the  menopause. — 
Not  a  period  of  suffering  to  all.— Effects  upon 
different  temperaments.— Every  woman  a 
law  unto  herself. — Importance  of  occupa- 
tion.— Freedom  from  exacting  demands. — 
Surroundings.— Diet.— Effects  of  Stimu- 
lants.—Importance  of  physical  culture. — 
Constipation.— Fresh  air. — Deep  breathing. 
— Relief  secured  by  self-control. — Impor- 
tance of  sexual  repose. — Sexual  inclination 
diminishes  and  eventually  disappears. — Ab- 
normal cases. — Duration  of  stress  at  change 
of  life, 221-233 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

MANIFESTATIONS   OF   THE   BIENOPAUSE. 

Menstrual  manifestations. — Other  manifesta- 
tions enumerated. — Mental  composure  as  a 
means  of  relief.— Other  means. — No  grounds 
for  serious  apprehensions. —  Mortality  of 
men  from  forty  to  fifty  greater  than  that  of 
women. — The  discomforts  are  not  all  im- 
aginary.— The  many  ills  which  women  suf- 
fer at  the  climacteric— "Queer  feeling  in 
the  head." — Insomnia  and  mental  depres- 
sion.— Hysteria. — The  many  demands  upon 
husband  for  patience  and  sympathy. — Man- 
ifestations of  aversion  to  husband. — Turn- 
ing against  her  children  and  best  friends. — 


16  CONTENTS. 

Charging  husband  as  being  the  author  of 
all  she  suffers, 235-245 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

ATTENDANT  PHYSICAL  CHANGES. 

Change  in  physical  form  of  woman  at  meno- 
pause.— Tending  to  masculine  characteris- 
tics.— Cause  of  increase  in  size  and  weight. 
— Growth  of  hair  upon  the  face. — Modifica- 
tion in  the  voice. — Hot  flushes. — Hemor- 
rhage.— Tumors  of  the  womb. — Cancers  and 
abnormal  growths. — Their  cause. — Diseases 
of  the  kidneys. — Symptoms  in  fifty-two 
climacteric  cases  classified. — Changed  con- 
dition of  womb  and  vagina. — Consequent 
changes  in  nervous  system. — Disappearance 
of  sexual  sensation  and  desire. — Similar 
changes  in  men. — Desires  of  husband  and 
wife  harmonized. — The  period  of  physical 
change  the  doorway  to  a  larger  manhood 
and  womanhood,        ....     247-260 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

MENTAL    MANIFESTATIONS    DURING    THE   MENO- 
PAUSE   PEEIOD. 

Effect  of  the  menopause  upon  the  mind. — 
Loss  of  interest,  increased  irritability. — The 
woman  becomes  suspicious  of  herself  and 
others. — Effect  upon  the  imagination  and 
the  moral  nature. — A  case  before  a  class  of 
medical  students. — How  they  perplex  their 
pastors. — Symptoms  of  moral  depravity. — 
Need  of  intelligence  upon  part  of  husband 
and  others. — The  gentle  woman  transformed 
into  a  terror. — Arrays  herself  against  hus- 
band and  best  friends. — Dissatisfied  with 
everything. — The  period  when  families  go 
to  pieces. — Insanity  among  men  and  women 
at  climacteric. — Views  of  medical  authority. 
— Character  of  hospitals  for  mental  sick- 
ness,       261-284 


PART  I. 

What  a  Man  of  Forty-five  Ought  to 
Know  Concerning  Himself. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PHYSICAL   CHANGES   IN  MEN  AT  MID- 
DLE  LIFE. 

The  Periods  of  Seven  Years  in  Human  Life. — Ten 
of  These  Periods  Make  the  Biblical  "Three- 
Score  and  Ten." — Intelligence  Suited  to  Each 
Period. — Prevalent  Ignorance  Concerning  the 
"Change  of  Life"  in  Men.— Sad  Kesults  of 
Such  Ignorance. — Reasons  for  Change  in  Phys- 
ical Life  of  Man  Stated. 

Human  life  seems  to  be  divided 
into  periods  of  about  seven  years.  At 
seven  years  of  age,  the  infant  enters 
upon  childhood ;  at  fourteen,  the  boy 
enters  upon  manhood ;  at  twenty-one, 
he  enters  upon  the  beginnings  of  the 
period  of  maturity.  At  the  seventh 
period  of  seven  years,  or  at  forty-nine 
years  of  age,  most  men  enter  upon 
what  has  been  aptly  called  "  the  youth 
of  old  age,"  and  at- the  end  of  ten  of 
these  periods  of  seven  years,  or  at 
"  three-score  years  and  ten,"  the  Bible 

19 


20  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

sets  the  allotted  period  of  human  life. 
The  length  of  these  periods  is  affected 
somewhat  by  the  heredity,  health,  vi- 
tality and  physical  endurance  of  the 
individual.  There  are  some  who  lack 
in  physical  endurance,  or  who  mature 
early  in  life,  and  with  such  these 
periods  may  be  somewhat  shortened, 
while  upon  the  other  hand  there  are 
some  whose  splendid  heredity,  plrysical 
endowments,  and  temperate  mode  of 
life  secure  for  them  some  lengthening 
of  these  periods.  But,  as  we  have 
said,  these  are  about  the  average  or 
normal  periods  of  human  life. 

What  the  infant  should  know  when 
it  has  entered  upon  childhood,  and  has 
turned  its  face  toward  the  developing 
years  is  told  in  the  book  in  this  series 
addressed  to  young  boys,  and  that 
knowledge  which  is  essential  for  the 
safeguarding  of  the  purity  and  strength 
of  those  who  have  passed  the  period  of 
puberty  and  have  entered  upon  the 
years  which  lead  up  toward  mature 
manhood,  has  been  told  in  the  book 
addressed  to  young  men,  and  the  in- 


31  AN   OF   FOE  TV-FIVE.  21 

formation  necessary  for  those  who 
have  attained  to  years  of  maturity, 
and  who  look  forward  to  marriage  and 
paternity  is  told  in  the  volume  ad- 
dressed to  young  husbands.  To  some 
it  may  seem  strange  that  any  added 
information  should  be  necessary  to 
men  who  have  attained  the  years  of 
middle  life,  yet  our  conferences  with 
men  between  the  ages  of  forty  and 
fifty  have  developed  the  fact  that  men 
of  forty-five  are  as  ignorant  of  the 
important  changes  which  have  begun 
or  are  soon  to  take  place  in  their 
bodies,  as  the  boys  who  approach  the 
period  of  fourteen  are  with  reference 
to  the  changes  which  attend  the  tran- 
sition from  bo}Thood  to  manhood?  If, 
in  that  important  developing  period 
for  lack  of  knowledge,  the  young  boy 
falls  into  vice,  he  measurably  blights 
the  strength  and  power  of  the  years 
.which  lie  before  him.  In  like  manner, 
\if  through  lack  of  intelligence,  at  the 
period  of  middle  life,  the  man  fails  to 
recognize  the  natural  limitations  of  his 
powers,  if  he  is  unable  to  understand 


22  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

the  changes  through  which  his  physical 
nature  is  passing,  or  fails  to  comprehend 
the  revolution  which  is  being  wrought 
in  the  reproductive  nature  of  his  wife, 
he  will  be  sure  to  suffer  consequences 
which  are  far-reaching  in  their  char- 
acter} 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  very  few  men 
who  have  not  had  their  special  atten- 
tion called  to  the  subject,  know  any- 
thing of  the  character,  and  much  less 
the  reasons  why  these  great  changes 
should  take  place  at  this  period  in  the 
bodies  of  both  men  and  women.  The 
lack  of  intelligence  at  just  this  juncture 
has  resulted  in  the  wrecking  of  thou- 
sands of  homes,  and  the  blasting  of 
multitudes  of  lives  that  might  have 
continued  in  blessing  and  beauty  until 
the  allotted  period  of  human  life  had 
been  fully  attained. 

In  order  to  understand  what  these 
changes  are,  why  they  should  take 
place  at  this  period,  and  how  they 
affect  the  entire  being,  physically,  in- 
tellectually and  socially,  it  is  necessary 
to  recall  the  great  purpose  which  God 


STAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  23 

had  in  mind  in  endowing  man  with 
reproductive  power.  Instead  of  con- 
tinuing to  create  each  individual  sep- 
arately, as  in  the  instance  of  Adam  and 
Eve,  God  took  His  creative  power  and 
endowed  those  whom  He  had  created 
with  jyro-creative  power.  In  order 
that  men  and  women  might  not 
shrink  from  the  burdens,  pains  and 
perils  which  parenthood  involves,  the 
reproductive  impulse  was  made  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  overcome  the  diffi- 
culties which  would  otherwise  have 
greatly  hindered,  if  not  wholly  pre- 
vented its  exercise,  and  which  would 
speedily  have  resulted  in  the  extinction 
of  the  human  race. 

But  it  was  not  sufficient  that  man 
should  simply  perpetuate  the  race  ;  he 
was  to  be  endowed  with  procreative 
power  only  during  that  period  of  his 
existence  when  he  could  transmit  to 
his  offspring  the  best  physical,  intel- 
lectual and  moral  endowments.  Men 
and  women  were  to  be  permitted  to 
beget  and  bear  children  up  until  that 
age  when  the  expectancy  of  human  life 


24  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

still  had  in  reserve  for  them  a  sufficient 
number  of  years  during  which  their  off- 
spring might  enjoy  the  advantages  of 
home,  of  nurture,  education  and  de- 
velopment, and  attain  to  the  years  of 
independent  manhood  and  womanhood 
before  the  parents  had  reached  the  end 
of  the  allotted  period  of  human  life. 

In  order  to  insure  the  transmission 
of  the  best  endowments — and  as  no 
person  can  transmit  what  he  does  not 
possess — the  transmission  and  concep- 
tion of  life  is  withheld  from  children 
during  their  growing  years,  and  the 
period  of  largest  f ruitfulness  is  granted 
with  the  early  vigor  attendant  upon 
the  attainment  of  the  full  maturity  of 
manhood  and  womanhood,  and  this 
power  diminishes  gradually  as  the 
physical  powers  wane  with  increasing 
years,  and  is  again  withdrawn  when 
the  climacteric  period  of  middle  life 
has  been  attained,  and  disintegration 
and  decay  begin  their  slow  and,  at 
first,  imperceptible  change.  Man  was 
not  made  sentient  that  he  might  be 
sensual,  but  the  reproductive  inclina- 


3TAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  25 

tion  has  as  its  great  primal  purpose  the 
perpetuity  of  the  human  race.  When 
once  that  great  primal  purpose  has 
been  fully  accomplished,  the  inclina- 
tion and  the  power  to  procreate  grad- 
ually diminishes,  and  finally  wholly 
disappears. 


CHAPTER  II. 

EVIDENCES  OF   CHANGE. 

Prevalent  Skepticism  Concerning  the  Climacteric 
in  Men  at  Middle  Life. — Old  Men  Who  Become 
Fathers. — Old  Men  Who  Vaunt  Themselves  After 
They  Have  Lost  All  Sexual  Power. — Vicious  Men 
Tantalized  by  Corrupt  Mind  When  Old. — Hus- 
band and  Wife  Sexually  Complemental. — To- 
gether They  Constitute  a  Reproductive  Unit. — 
Masculine  and  Feminine  Natures  Harmonized 
and  Adjusted  Each  to  the  Other. — Correspond- 
ing Changes  Take  Place  in  Both. — Less  Marked 
in  Man. — The  Mating  Instinct  Universal. — Sex- 
ual Inclination  of  Male  and  Female  Responsive 
in  Activity  and  Repose. — Harmonious  Waxing  in 
Early  Life. — Harmonious  Waning  in  Middle 
Life. — The  Age  at  Which  They  Occur. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  ideas  preva- 
lent among  most  men  forces  upon  us 
the  conviction  that  what  we  have  said 
upon  the  subject  of  the  physical 
changes  which  take  place  in  the  male 
at  middle  life  will  be  received  by  many 
men  with  doubt  and  misgiving.  Most 
men  who  are  under  forty-five  years  of 

27 


28  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

age,  and  women,  who  have  passed  on 
far  beyond  that  period  of  life,  have  oc- 
casionally learned  of  men  of  sixty 
years  of  age  and  upwards,  who  have 
married  young  wives,  and  after  a 
period  of  sexual  repose  and  recupera- 
tion, have  become  the  father  of  one  or 
more  children.  Reasoning  from  these 
rather  exceptional  cases,  it  is  perhaps 
generally  supposed  by  the  uninformed 
that  virility  uniformally  continues  in 
man  for  an  almost  indefinite  period. 
Many  younger  men  are  also  deceived 
because  old  men  who  have  led  impure 
lives  continue  to  vaunt  their  corrup- 
tion of  thought  and  speech,  even  after 
the}r  have  lost  all  sexual  power,  and  the 
uninformed  suppose  that  these  senile 
old  men  still  actualize  the  evil  of 
which  they  so  boastingly  speak.  The 
listener  does  not  always  know  that  the 
mind  continues  to  grow  increasingly 
corrupt  even  after  sexual  power  has 
wholly  departed. 

The  uninitiated  may  oftentimes  be 
very  greatly  deceived  as  to  the  actual 
physical  conditions  of  those  who  have 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  29 

led  a  dissolute  and  vicious  life  by  the 
additional  fact  that  old  men  of  this 
class  often  support  a  private  prostitute, 
and  sometimes  even  at  a  considerable 
cost.  But  this  is  frequently  done,  not 
only  where  capacity  has  long  since 
departed,  but  where  the  individual 
does  not  even  possess  erectile  power. 
Such  a  course  can  only  be  understood 
when  we  remember  that  where  an  in- 
dividual leads  a  vicious  and  corrupt 
life  the  mind  continues  to  become  in- 
creasingly debased  and  polluted  as  the 
years  go  on,  even  to  the  end  of  life ; 
and  it  is  this  fact  that  acids  such  awful 
significance  to  that  wonderful  declara- 
tion in  the  book  of  Revelations,  where 
it  says,  "  He  that  is  filthy,  let  him  be 
filthy  still " — teaching  that  in  the 
next  world,  as  in  this,  those  who  are 
righteous  and  pure  continue  in  their 
progression,  becoming  more  pure  and 
more  righteous,  while  those  who  are 
vicious  become  more  and  more  cor- 
rupt, attaining  unto  that  hideous  and 
repellent  degradation  which  was  pic- 
tured by  Doctor  Todd  and  which  we 


30  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

quoted  in  the  closing  paragraphs  of 
the  second  volume  in  this  series  ad- 
dressed to  young  men.  Something  of 
the  aggravating  nature  of  such  a  cor- 
rupt mind,  to  one  who  has  lost  all 
physical  power,  is  pictured  in  the  word 
tantalize — a  word  derived  from  "  Tan- 
talus "  the  fabulous  Phrygian  king, 
who  was  condemned  to  stand  up  to  his 
chin  in  water,  with  a  tree  of  fair  fruit 
over  his  head,  both  of  which,  as  he  at- 
tempted to  allay  his  hunger  or  thirst, 
fled  from  his  approach. 

Multitudes  of  men  who  know  some- 
thing of  the  physical  changes  which 
take  place  in  women  at  the  period  of 
middle  life  are  wholly  unconscious  that 
somewhat  corresponding  changes  take 
place  in  the  physical  life  of  man  at 
about  the  corresponding  periotTJ  That 
such  should  be  the  case,  can  be  readily 
understood  when  we  remember  that 
men  and  women  are  sexually  comple- 
mental  to  each  other,  and  that  to- 
gether they  constitute  a  reproductive 
unit.  It  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
that  that  Infinite  Wisdom  which  has 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  31 

so  beautifully  adapted  and  adjusted 
the  reproductive  natures  of  man  and  of 
woman  for  the  high  and  holy  purposes 
contemplated  in  their  marriage — in 
early  years  equalizing,  harmonizing 
and  adjusting  each  to  the  other,  and 
preserving  the  equilibrium  through  the 
years  for  about  a  quarter  of  a  century — 
should  continue  to  harmonize  and 
equalize  the  reproductive  nature  and 
impulses  of  the  two  individuals  who 
have  entered  upon  marriage  at  a 
period  of  equal  maturity.  If  the  wife 
is  to  lose  her  power  to  conceive  and  to 
bear  children,  it  is  but  reasonable  to 
expect,  that  the  natures,  which  have 
during  the  long  years  of  wedded  life 
been  suited  to  each  other  as  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  a  complex  but  perfect 
machine,  should  now  find,  both  in  the 
husband  and  in  the  wife  such  mutual 
physical  changes  as  should  continue  to 
harmonize  their  lives  during  the  re- 
mainder of  their  days. 
^In  man  the  outward  manifestations 
of  these  physical  changes,  so  far  as 
they  relate  to  the  reproductive  func- 


32  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

tion  are  not  as  pronounced  as  in 
woman,  and  whereas  the  physical  and 
mental  stress  through  which  both 
pass  are  not  so  decided  or  manifest  in 
man  as  in  womanj  therefore  fewer 
men,  even  at  forty-five  years  of  age, 
understand  either  the  changes  which 
await  them  or  the  significance  of  such 
changes  when  they  do  take  place.       . 

Nor  are  these  the  only  reasons.  Lin 
their  earliest  beginnings  men  are  not 
so  likely  to  discover  these  changes  in 
themselves,  and  because  oi_the_natural 
love  of  prowess  and  power,  men  are 
verf- sTow  to  confess  these  changes, 
even  to  themselves,  and  much  less  to 
others.  The  sensual  and  the  vile  are 
further  actuated  by  the  love  of  decep- 
tion— the  deception  of  themselves  and 
the  deception  of  others.^  Such  there- 
fore continue  to  boast  themselves  in  the 
presence  of  others  of  evils,  the  commis- 
sion of  which  they  have  long  since  lost 
the  capacity  to  perform. 

The  full  significance  of  what  we  have 
said  in  reference  to  the  complemental 
character  of  the  reproductive  nature  of 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  33 

the  male  and  female  is  best  understood 
when  we  recall  the  fact  that  the  equal 
number  of  male  children  and  female  chil- 
dren born  into  the  world  is  clearly  sug- 
gestive, apart   from   any   divine  com- 
mand, of   the   purpose   that  one  man 
shall  be  united  to  one  woman  in  a  life- 
union.     Indeed   there   are   those  who 
have  made  a  careful  study  of  the  sub- 
ject, who  are  ready  to  declare  that  the 
inclination  to  select  and  continue  faith- 
ful to  a  single  mate  of  the  opposite  sex 
is  innate  and  universal  among  birds  and 
beasts  and   fishes.     It   is   claimed   by 
some  who  have  made  a  careful  study 
of  this  matter,  that  if  all  domesticated 
birds  and  animals  were  left  in  their 
free,  native  and  unrestricted  life,  even 
chickens,  cats,  dogs  and  all  kinds  of 
animals,  would  naturally  mate  for  life. 
In  reference  to  this  theory  it  is  fair  to 
say  that  the   presumptions  are   quite 
strongly  in  its  favor. 

Much  plausibility  is  given  to  this 
theory  of  universal  mating,  not  only 
from  what  is  seen  among  the  animals 
and  birds  that  live  an  unrestricted  life, 

3 


34  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

but  also  from  the  fact,  that  among 
these,  as  in  the  human  family,  the  num- 
ber of  male  and  female  offspring  is 
about  equal.  This  balance  can  be  ob- 
served even  in  the  poultry  yard. 

The  careful  observer  cannot  but 
have  noticed  in  both  plant  and  animal 
life  such  harmonious  modifications  as 
suggest  similar  correspondences  in  hu- 
man life.  Among  plants,  fishes,  in- 
sects, birds  and  animals,  there  is  a  har- 
monized adjustment  of  reproductive 
activity — the  male  and  female  natures, 
in  their  activity  and  repose,  corre- 
sponding and  responding  each  to  the 
other.  "When  the  reproductive  activity 
has  reached  the  crest  of  its  intensity, 
it  subsides  alike  in  both  the  male  and 
the  female.  The  anthers  and  pistils  of 
the  plant  droop  and  perish  at  the  same 
period,  after  the  ovules  or  seedlets  have 
been  fertilized.  The  male  and  female 
fishes  pass  the  climax  together,  and  to- 
gether pass  into  a  period  of  preferred 
repose  and  recuperation.  The  waning 
of  the  color  in  the  wing  of  the  insect, 
the  fading  plumage  of  the  bird,  the 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  35 

falling  antlers  or  horns  of  the  deer, 
the  modification  and  changes  in  all  de- 
partments of  animate  nature  illustrate 
how  the  rising  and  falling  tides  of  sex- 
ual activity  and  quiescence  correspond 
in  male  and  female — waxing  until  it 
reaches  the  greatest  fulness  of  sexual 
expression  and  activity,  and  then  a  cor- 
responding waning  and  recession  take 
place  alike  in  both  male  and  female. 

The  flame  which  burns  with  the 
greatest  intensity  of  reproductive  ac- 
tivity after  the  attainment  of  the  full 
maturity  in  the  male  and  the  female 
finds  in  each  a  corresponding  diminu- 
tion and  fading  after  a  series  of  return- 
ing periods  of  reproductive  activity. 
Most  intense  at  early  maturity,  less 
pronounced  in  the  middle  period  of  re- 
productive life,  it  then  subsides  alike 
in  both  the  male  and  the  female  at  the 
period  of  the  later  climacteric. 

This  law  which  we  find  universal  in 
the  lower  forms  of  life,  dominates  all 
nature  and  is  found  also  in  the  repro- 
ductive nature  and  activity  of  man. 
As  in  woman,  so  in  man,  the  reproduc- 


36  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

tive  activity  is  most  manifest  at  the 
period  of  full  maturity.  When  the 
emotions  wax  and  wane  in  woman, 
they  find  a  corresponding  alternation 
in  the  sexual  nature  of  man.  While 
there  are  many  who  have  not  been  suf- 
ficiently observant  to  recognize  these 
monitions  and  modifications  in  men, 
yet  they  occur,  and  are  noticeable  to 
the  attentive  and  studious  observer. 

What  is  true  of  the  harmonious  be- 
ginnings of  sexual  emotion  in  young 
women  and  young  men,  preceding  and 
attending  the  period  of  maturity,  is 
also  true  of  the  harmonized  waning  of 
these  powers  when  middle  life  is  passed 
and  the  change  of  life  occurs  in  women. 
In  the  case  of  women,  as  we  have  al- 
ready said,  this  change  is  more  mani- 
fest, but  it  is  none  the  less  real  in  man  ; 
nor  do  the  observant  and  honest  fail 
to  recognize  them  in  their  own  bodily 
emotions  and  powers. 

yjist  at  what  age  these  changes  may 
occur  will  depend  largely  upon  the 
questions  of  heredity,  bodily  vigor,  the 
age  at  which  adolescence  and  maturity 


MAN    OF   FOE  TV- FIVE.  37 

were  attained,  the  degree  to  which  one 
has  avoided  all  forms  of  excess,  the  at- 
tention given  to  physical  culture  and 
other  questions  which  affect  the  health 
and  physical  powers^j 


/<*  » 


CHAPTER  III. 

MANIFESTATIONS   OF   THE  CHANGE. 

The  Climacteric  of  Middle  Life  and  Period  of 
Adolescence  Contrasted. — Evidences  of  Change 
at  Middle  Life. — Significance  of  Gray  Hairs. — 
Slight  Lapses  of  Memory. — Effect  upon  the  Sight. 
— Waste  and  Repair. — The  Teeth. — Diminished 
Powers  of  Endurance. — Sexual  Desire  Dimin- 
ishes.— Manifested  at  Longer  Intervals. — En- 
largement of  the  Prostate  Gland. — How  it  Mani- 
fests Itself. — At  What  Period  These  Changes 
Occur. — How  Delayed  in  Their  Manifestation. 

It  will  not  be  very  difficult  to  con- 
vince men  who  have  already  attained 
the  period  of  middle  life  that  physical 
changes  of  a  very  marked  character 
take  place,  but  those  who  are  some- 
what younger  and  who  have  labored 
for  years  under  the  misapprehension 
that  the  procreative  vigor  of  early 
youth  continues  until  advanced  old 
age,  will  be  likely  to  desire  some  mani- 
fest evidences  that  such  physical 
changes  do  really  take  place.     If  the 

39 


40  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

changes  which  take  place  at  the  period 
of  the  sexual  hush  in  the  life  of  men  are 
as  pronounced,  even  though  not  as 
rapid,  as  those  which  take  place  in  the 
physical  nature  of  the  boy  at  the 
period  of  puberty,  it  is  natural  to  in- 
quire why  so  little  should  be  known 
concerning  these  changes.  At  the 
period  of  adolescence  boys  are  very 
likely  to  communicate  the  information 
that  the  new  acquisition  of  manly 
power  has  come  to  them,  and  thus  the 
fact  is  likely  to  be  known  to  boys  who 
have  not  yet  themselves  attained  to 
that  period.  But  with  men  at  middle 
life,  the  reverse  is  the  case.  Many  may 
not  have  anticipated  such  a  change,  and 
they  are  very  slow  to  admit  the  fact, 
even  to  themselves,  and  much  less  are 
they  willing  to  communicate  such  in- 
formation to  their  fellows,  and  espe- 
cially to  those  who  are  still  in  the  full 
vigor  of  manhood. 

That  such  changes  do  take  place, 
there  are  sufficient  manifestations, 
some  of  which  are  visible  to  others, 
and  some  of  which  are  only  known  to 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  41 

the  individual  himself.  Among  the 
earlier  indications  are  the  streaks  of 
gray  which  begin  to  appear,  either  in 
the  hair  or  beard,  or  in  both.  It  might 
however  be  unsafe  to  impute  the  full 
significance  of  this  statement  to  com- 
paratively young  persons  of  good  bodily 
vigor  who  are  members  of  families 
where  the  different  members  become 
prematurely  gray. 

At  the  period  of  this  climacteric 
in  men  the  memory  also  becomes  less 
retentive.  Perhaps  first  of  all  the 
names  of  individuals,  and  especially  of 
strangers,  are  less  easily  recalled. 
Dates  and  figures  do  not  stick  as  they 
once  did.  It  becomes  difficult,  and 
in  some  instances  almost  impossible  to 
commit  to  memory  that  with  which 
the  mind  was  not  previously  familiar. 

The  sight  is  likely  to  become  meas- 
urably defective,  objects  at  a  distance 
are  seen  more  clearly,  but  glasses  are 
needed  in  order  to  examine  critically 
objects  near  at  hand,  or  to  enable  the 
individual  to  read  for  any  considerable 
period  without   suffering  severe  head- 


42  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

aches  which  are  felt  just  in  front  of  the 
temples  and  nearly  above  the  eyes. 

It  is  then  also  that  bodily  repair 
does  not  take  place  promptly,  as  in  the 
earlier  years,  and  consequently  the 
teeth  are  likely  to  give  indications  of 
more  rapid  decay;  fatigue  follows 
more  closely  upon  muscular  and  mental 
effort,  and  the  individual  is  no  longer 
able  to  endure  either  prolonged  study 
or  the  physical  exertions  in  which  he 
once  so  much  delighted.  If  given  to 
mental  and  literary  effort,  he  is  no 
longer  able  to  give  himself  absorbingly 
to  writing,  to  study  and  close  investi- 
gation continuing  until  late  at  night, 
without  thereby  losing  the  ability  to 
apply  himself  for  an  equal  period 
during  the  subsequent  day. 

At  the  period  of  this  change  in  men 
sexual  desire  manifests  itself  at  longer 
intervals,  is  noticeablv  diminished  in 
intensity,  and  when  indulged  is  fol- 
lowed by  greater  and  more  prolonged 
fatigue.  The  effect  of  strains  or  in- 
juries received  in  earlier  years  which 
may  have  been  measurably  forgotten 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  43 

are  likely  to  become  more  manifest. 
Inherited  and  acquired  physical  weak- 
nesses which  may  previously  have  been 
the  occasion  of  but  little  thought  may 
now  call  for  careful  consideration. 

It  is  at  this  period  of  middle  life 
that  the  prostate  gland  perceptibly 
enlarges  and  presses  upon  the  urethra 
at  the  point  where  it  leaves  the  blad- 
der, causing  that  slowness  when  begin- 
ning to  urinate,  which  is  noticeable 
in  older  men.  Instead  of  being  able 
to  expel  a  strong  stream,  as  in  the 
earlier  years,  a  moment  is  needed  be- 
fore the  urine  begins  to  flow,  and  the 
stream  is  devoid  of  its  former  force. 
This  enlargement  of  the  prostate 
gland  is  likely  to  result  in  the  reten- 
tion of  a  small  amount  of  sediment  at 
each  effort  to  void  the  bladder,  and 
this  sediment  is  likely  to  set  up  a  slight 
irritation  at  the  neck  of  the  bladder, 
and  with  the  accumulation  of  urine 
during  the  sleeping  hours,  causes  that 
sense  of  discomfort  and  unrest  which 
makes  it  necessary  for  most  men  of 
middle  life  and  beyond  to  empty  the 


44  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

bladder  once  or  more  during  the 
night. 

These  are  some  of  the  manifestations 
which  indicate  that  those  modifications 
of  the  sexual  nature  which  call  for  early 
recognition  and  careful  consideration 
have  already  taken  place,  or  are  at 
present  working  themselves  out  in  the 
physical  nature  of  the  individual. 

These  manifestations  are  not  nec- 
essarily all  present  in  the  experience 
of  each  person,  nor  do  they  in  different 
experiences  necessarily  take  place  at 
the  same  period  of  life.  With  men 
who  have  lived  lives  of  sexual  excess, 
virile  power  usually  disappears  at  a 
much  earlier  period  than  in  men  whose 
lives  have  been  correct  and  moderate. 
Some  persons  inherit  a  larger  measure 
of  physical  power  and  endurance,  while 
the  ancestors  of  others  have  bequeathed 
to  them  weaknesses,  diseases  and  in- 
firmities which  they  may  have  failed 
either  to  overcome  or  largely  to  modify. 
All  of  the  considerations  which  go  into 
the  making  up  of  good  health,  whether 
they   be    questions   of    diet,    exercise, 


31  AN   OF   FORTY- FIVE.  45 

fresh  air,  bathing  or  whatever,  all 
have  their  influence  in  determining  at 
what  stage  of  one's  earthly  career  these 
physical  changes  shall  occur. 

A  gentleman  of  fifty  odd  years  of 
age,  realizing  in  his  own  experience  the 
modifications  which  had  come  to  him, 
in  writing  to  a  friend  of  about  the 
same  age  who  had  alwavs  been  an 
earnest  and  indefatigable  worker,  said : 
"  We  are  coming  to  that  time  of  life 
when  the  vigor  of  youth  has  passed 
away  and  when  the  strength  of  man- 
hood is  retained  by  a  rather  precarious 
and  uncertain  tenure,  so  I  am  not  as- 
tonished to  learn  that  you  are  being 
warned  that  there  is  a  limit  to  en- 
durance." Such  monitions  and  ad- 
monitions may  be  expected  by  all  men 
at  about  this  period  of  life. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

TIIE    TESTIMONY    OF    MEDICAL    MEN. 

Observant  Men  of  Fifty  Need  no  Testimony  Con- 
cerning Climacteric  or  "  Change  of  Life." — Evi- 
dence Only  Needed  for  Younger  Men. — The 
Uniform  Testimony  of  Medical  Authorities. — 
James  Foster  Scott,  M.  D.,  on  the  Climacteric 
Changes  in  Men  and  Women. — Statement  of 
Dr.  Lyman  B.  Sperry. — The  Strong  Statements 
of  Dr.  William  Acton,  the  Leading  English 
Authority.— The  Testimony  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Kel- 
logg.— What  Dr.  George  H.  Napheys  Says  in 
His  "Transmission  of  Life." — The  Facts  Uni- 
versally Admitted. — Questions  of  Future  Weil- 
Being  to  be  Considered  in  Other  Chapters. 

If  writing  only  to  observant  men  of 
middle  life,  who  have  entered  upon  this 
period  of  physical  change,  it  doubtless 
would  be  unnecessary  to  burden  these 
pages  Avith  any  evidence  beyond  that 
which  they  have  already  discovered  in 
themselves,  in  order  to  convince  them 
of  the  correctness  of  our  position  in  the 
preceding  pages.     But  recognizing  the 

47 


48  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

fact  that  this  book  is  likely  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  many  men  who  have  not 
yet  attained  to  middle  life,  or  who 
have  never  entertained  the  thought 
that  there  occurs  in  the  male  nature  a 
sexual  hush  at  middle  life,  correspond- 
ing somewhat  to  the  change  which  they 
may  or  may  not  have  known  to  occur 
in  the  physical  life  of  women,  it  may 
be  necessary  before  proceeding  to  the 
consideration  of  other  phases  of  our 
subject  that  we  should  carefully  re- 
move from  their  minds  any  doubt  with 
regard  to  the  accuracy  of  the  state- 
ments which  we  have  made.  We  can- 
not but  recognize  the  fact  that  there 
are  those  who  might  have  some  grounds 
for  fear  that  we  were  moved  in  these 
pages  to  the  consideration  of  the  sub- 
ject from  an  ethical,  rather  than  from 
a  medical  standpoint.  We  have  there- 
fore thought  best,  at  this  point,  to 
quote  from  a  few  reliable  medical 
authorities,  and  also  to  state  that  we 
know  of  no  medical  authority  who  is 
at  variance  with  the  teachings  of  those 
whom  we  quote. 


31  AN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  49 

Dr.  James  Foster  Scott  in  his  ex- 
cellent new  book  on  the  sexual  in- 
stinct entitled  "  Heredity  and  Morals  " 
in  treating  of  the  climacteric  period  in 
men  and  women  says,  \ilhe  sexual  life 
of  both  men  and  women  continues 
until  the  climacteric,  which  is  a  mo- 
mentous change,  or  crisis,  in  the  lives 
of  individuals,  when  the  balance  be- 
tween tissue-waste  and  restitution  is 
disorderedT,  After  this  event  the  in- 
dividual is  in  the  afternoon  of  life  and 
is  again  sexless  from  a  physiological 
standpoint^ 

"  This  physiological  change  comes  on 
quite  abruptly  in  women  sometimes 
between  the  forty-second  and  fiftieth 
years,  with  the  heaviest  figures  in  the 
forty -fourth  year.  In  men  it  is  grad- 
ual and  longer  deferred,  occurring,  as 
a  rule,  somewhere  between  the  fiftieth 
and  sixty-fifth  year,  though  the  effects 
of  the  change  are  by  no  means  so 
clearly  appreciable  in  them  as  in 
women]  As  a  rule,  the  male  repro- 
ductive elements  or  spermatozoa,  dis- 
appear from  the  semen  at  about  the 

4 


50  MAN    OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

sixty-second  year,  though  the  individ- 
ual may  be  quite  able  to  copulate  sat- 
isfactorily for  some  years  more.  Ex- 
ceptionally the  virile  power  remains 
with  men  even  to  the  most  advanced 
age;  but  women,  almost  without  ex- 
ception, are  sterile  before  they  have 
reached  the  fiftieth  year.  With  the 
completion  of  the  functions  of  sperm 
formation  by  the  male,  and  ovulation, 
or  egg-formation,  by  the  female,  their 
sexual  lives  become  forever  closed. 

"  Such  is  the  history  of  life !  At 
first  a  neuter ;  then  a  rapid  growth 
and  development  of  the  body  with 
sexuality  as  the  distinguishing  and 
fashioning  feature  ;  then  the  matura- 
tion and  expansion  of  the  physical  and 
psychical  endowments ;  then  the  re- 
productive period,  followed  hy  that  of 
quiescence  and  old  age." 

Dr.  Lyman  B.  Sperry  in  his  book, 
Husband  and  Wife,  says  :  "  It  should 
be  clearly  fixed  in  the  mind,  for  it  is 
highly  significant,  that  the  reproduc- 
tive department  naturally  unfolds  only 
after  one  has  secured  a  large  measure 


MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  51 

of  general  physical  development ;  and 
that,  naturally,  it  continues  active  and 
potential  only  until  the  years  when 
the  nutritive  department  begins  to 
fail,  and  the  body  finds  its  income 
needed  to  sustain  the  energy  which  is 
essential  to  general  health  and  effi- 
ciency. Evidently  the  Creator  in- 
tended that  only  the  superabundant 
and  best  vitality  of  matured  manhood 
and  womanhood  should  be  used  in  the 
generation  of  offspring.  Procreative 
power  is  therefore  confined  to  the 
most  vigorous  period  of  life." 

Dr.  William  Acton,  who  has  for 
many  years  been  regarded  as  a  stand- 
ard authority,  writing  on  these  matters 
in  his  book  on  "The  Eeproductive 
Organs"  and  in  treating  this  subject 
quotes  from  Doctor  Parise,  who  says : 
"  It  is  usually  at  the  age  of  fifty  or  sixty 
that  the  generative  function  becomes 
weakened.  It  is  at  this  period  that 
mem,  elevated  to  the  sacred  character 
of  paternity,  and  proud  of  his  virile 
power,  begins  to  notice  that  power  de- 
creased,   and  does  so   almost  with   a 


52  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

feeling  of  indignation^  The  first  step 
toward  feebleness  announces  to  him, 
unmistakably,  that  he  is  no  longer  the 
man  he  was.  He  may  retard  the 
effect  up  to  a  certain  point,  but  not  en- 
tirely. This  law  must  have  its  full 
and  entire  execution,  dura  lex,  sed  lex. 
The  activity  of  the  generative  organs 
diminishes,  their  functions  abate,  lan- 
guish, and  then  cease  entirely.  The 
wish  and  the  want  are  no  longer  one 
and  the  same  thing;  the  imagination 
does  not  exercise  its  olden  power  and 
fascination  on  these  organs. 

"Blood  now  only  flows  in  small 
quantities  toward  the  testes.  Their 
sensibility  becomes  blunted,  and  is  re- 
duced to  what  is  sufficient  for  the  nu- 
trition of  the  parts.  The  scrotum  is 
observed  to  become  wrinkled  and  di- 
minished in  size,  the  testicles  atrophy 
(waste  and  diminish  in  size),  and  the 
complicated  vascular  tissues  which 
form  them  become  obliterated ;  the 
semen,  that  peculiar  secretion  of  the 
blood,  is  not  only  less  abundant,  but 
has  lost  its  consistence  and  its  force. 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  '  53 

The  animalculae,  zoosperms,  which 
constitute  its  nature  or  its  essence,  far 
from  being  as  numerous  or  active  as  for- 
merly, are,  on  the  contrary,  few  and 
languid." 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  in  his  book  enti- 
tled "  Plain  Facts  for  Old  and  Young," 
says,  "  When  has  a  man  reached  that 
age  at  which  he  may  be  said  to  be  an 
old  man  ?  There  is  a  wonderful  differ- 
ence in  individuals  in  respect  to  the 
period  at  which  symptoms  of  decline 
make  their  appearance,  much  being 
due  to  previous  habits  of  life,  as  well  as 
individual  peculiarities  and  hereditary 
predisposition.  It  may  be  said,  how- 
ever, that  the  average  man  enters  upon 
that  portion  of  his  life  usually  denomi- 
nated as  old  age,  at  about  the  age  of 
fifty  years.  At  this  period  his  physical 
powers  begin  to  show  evidence  of  de- 
cline. His  reserve  force  of  vitality 
which  is  considerably  less  than  at  an 
earlier  age,  may  still  be  sufficient  to 
enable  his  system  to  perform  all  the 
functions  of  life  with  regularity,  but  he 
is  unable   to   endure  hardships  as  in 


54  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

previous  years,  and  suffers  sensibly 
whenever  any  extreme  demand  is  made 
upon  his  vitality. 

"  He  is  a  wise  man  who  at  this  period 
of  life,  while  his  vital  functions  are  still 
well  performed,  and  the  system  subject 
to  no  special  disease  or  debility,  recog- 
nizes the  fact  that  he  is  no  longer 
young,  and  regulates  himself  accord- 
ingly. Such  a  man  will  lay  down  as 
his  rule  of  life  the  greatest  moderation 
in  everything  demanding  vital  expen- 
diture, and  will  resolutely  set  his  face 
against  every  form  of  unnecessary  ex- 
penditure of  vitality. 

"  As  has  been  pointed  out  elsewhere 
in  this  work  the  exercise  of  the  sexual 
function  is  accompanied  by  the  most 
exhausting  expenditure  of  nervous  and 
vital  energy  of  which  the  body  is  capa- 
ble. Such  expenditures  are  entirely 
unnecessary  to  the  health  of  the  body, 
and  hence  it  is  evident  that  at  this 
period  of  life,  when  the  vital  forces 
should  be  in  every  way  economized, 
such  indulgences  should  be  discon- 
tinued." 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  55 

In  his  book  entitled  "  The  Transmis- 
sion of  Life,"  Dr.  George  H.  Napheys, 
in  writing  upon  this  subject  says,  "  In 
general,  in  this  country,  we  may  assign 
the  period  of  virility  to  commence  at 
twenty-five  years  of  age  and  to  draw 
to  a  close  at  forty-five,  thus  extending 
over  a  score  of  years.  During  this 
period  the  physical  and  intellectual  ac- 
tivity of  most  men  is  at  its  height. 
They  are  capable  of  their  best,  and 
whether  in  business  or  in  scholarship, 
usually  accomplish  the  most  for  which 
they  are  spoken  of  and  remembered. 
The  children  born  to  them  during  this 
time  are  more  vigorous,  and  are  en- 
dowed with  more  active  powers,  than 
those  begotten  either  before  or  after 
these  limits.  From  fifteen  to  twenty- 
five  the  organs  yield  immature  and  im- 
perfect secretion,  later  than  forty-five 
the  passions  grow  rare  and  briefer,  and 
the  individual  suffers  more  acutely  from 
every  attempt  to  increase  the  species. 

"  There  are,  however,  some  striking 
examples  on  record  showing  how  a  good 
constitution  supported  by  proper  care, 


56  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 


can  escape  the  action  of  this  law  for 
many  years." 

This  same  writer  in  another  place 
says,  "  If  it  is  true,  and  it  would  seem 
from  the  number  of  opinions  expressed 
by  medical  authors  whom  we  have  con- 
sulted, that  the  age  of  commencing 
decay  in  Europe  is  from  fifty  to  sixty, 
then  in  this  country  we  must,  as  a  na- 
tion, be  suffering  some  degeneration  in 
this  respect.  For  it  is  certain  that  of  a 
number  of  elderly  men  whom  we  have 
consulted  on  this  point,  the  majority 
confess  to  having  felt  a  decided  de- 
crease both  in  desire  and  sexual  vigor 
as  early  as  forty-five.  We  venture  the 
prediction  that  three  out  of  four  of  our 
elderly  readers  will  agree  that  this 
coincides  with  their  own  experience." 

The  causes  for  this  somewhat  earlier 
diminution  of  virile  power  will  appear 
in  what  we  have  to  say  later  upon  this 
same  subject.  It  is,  however,  sufficient 
for  our  present  purpose  to  have  quoted 
these  medical  authorities  to  establish 
the  fact  that  at  about  the  period  of 
forty-five  years  of  age  most  men  ex- 


MAN    OF   FORTY- FIVE.  57 

perienco  what  is  sometimes  called  "  a 
change  of  life  in  men,"  the  fact  being 
admitted  beyond  all  peradventure 
leaves  the  mind  open  for  the  considera- 
tion of  those  subjects  which  are  most 
important  in  their  relation  to  the  future 
well-being  of  the  individual  who  has  at- 
tained this  period  of  life. 


CHAPTER  V. 

COMPENSATIONS. 

Mental  Benefits  which  Attend  and  Follow  the  Sex- 
ual Hush  in  Men. — Purer  Mind  and  Sweeter 
Spirit. — Being  Able  to  Look  Sympathetically 
Both  Backward  and  Forward. — Sense  of  Relief 
from  Perils  Past. — The  Changes  in  Men  More 
Gradual  and  Less  Severe  Than  in  Women. — 
The  Changes  in  Men  Fit  Them  to  Sympathize 
Somewhat  with  Women. — Physical  and  Intel- 
lectual Force  of  Many  Men  Not  Abated. — After 
Sexual  Modification  Many  Men  Are  at  Their 
Best. — Time  and  Experience  Often  Open  Their 
Eichest  Treasures  to  Men  of  Middle  Life  and 
Beyond. — The  Statement  Illustrated. 

While  no  man  can  become  con- 
scious of  the  loss  of  any  of  his  manly 
powers  without  an  appreciable  sense 
of  regret,  yet  nature  brings  many 
compensations  to  those  who  attain  to 
that  period  of  life  when  they  enter 
upon  "  the  youth  of  old  age."  To  one 
whose  heart  and  mind  have  been  set 
throughout  life  to  the  attainment  of 

59 


60  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

purity  and  correct  living,  there  is  al- 
Avays  present  during  the  earlier  years 
a  consciousness  of  the  influence  of  sex- 
ual impulse  and  inclination  upon  his 
mental  workings.  Even  the  most  pure 
cannot  wholly  escape  from  thoughts 
which  crowd  in  upon  the  mind  and 
would  invade  that  sanctity  of  the  in- 
ner life  where  impurity  must  not  be 
permitted  to  take  up  its  abode.  Cast 
them  out  as  speedily  as  we  will  the 
consciousness  of  their  possible  intru- 
sion in  hours  of  business  or  social 
pleasure,  or  even  religious  worship,  al- 
ways brings  apprehension.  Xo  man 
who  strives  after  purity  of  thought 
and  life  can  do  other  than  regret  the 
intrusion  of  impure  thoughts,  and  that 
which  distinguishes  him  from  the  im- 
pure, is  not  that  impure  thoughts  do 
not  come  to  him,  but  that  he  does  not 
permit  them  to  abide  in  his  mind  so  as 
to  bring  forth  their  prolific  progeny  of 
evils  in  his  life.  To  such  a  man  the 
knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the  stress 
of  sexual  impulse  is  gradually  passing 
away,  and  that  with  the  coming  years 


3IAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  61 

there  is  to  be  an  increasing  control 
over  his  mind  and  sexual  nature,  brings 
some  grateful  sense  of  relief.  To  such 
an  one  there  comes  a  sense  of  satisfac- 
tion that  with  the  added  years  the 
stress  of  passion  will  be  past,  the  im- 
agination will  become  more  chastened, 
the  heart  more  refined,  the  lines  of 
intellectual  and  spiritual  vision  length- 
ened, the  sphere  of  usefulness  enlarged, 
and  that  the  character  may  become 
more  and  more  conformed  to  that  per- 
fection and  majesty  of  Him  who  is 
represented  in  the  Scriptures  as  "  The 
Ancient  of  Days." 

Only  once  in  a  long  life  is  a  man 
permitted  to  stand  where  he  can  enjoy 
the  satisfaction  of  looking  sympathetic- 
ally both  backward  and  forward.  At 
the  middle  period  of  life  one  may  look 
backward  with  tender  interest  upon 
the  young  in  their  vigor  and  hopeful- 
ness, and  also  look  forward  with  under- 
standing and  sympathy  for  those  whose 
declining  years  bring  them  physical  in- 
firmities, and  whose  perplexities  and 
disappointments  leave  them  but  little 


62  MAN   OF  FORTY- FIVE. 

hope  of  finding  rest  until  their  weary 
feet  stand  in  the  home  of  their  heav- 
enly Father. 

It  has  been  said  that  "  at  forty-five  a 
man  is  either  a  fool  or  a  physician." 
This  aphorism  is  full  of  thoughtful 
suggestion,  and  the  man  who  can  look 
back  upon  all  his  earlier  years  realiz- 
ing that  amidst  its  temptations,  its 
dangers  and  its  ruin  he  has  been  mer- 
cifully led  and  graciously  preserved 
from  the  pitfalls  into  which  so  many 
have  fallen  to  their  utter  discomfiture 
and  ruin,  will  find  in  his  contempla- 
tions a  large  sense  of  compensation. 
If  the  impulses  and  inclinations  which 
God  has  placed  within  us  for  the  wisest 
and  best  purposes  have  found  their 
rightful  and  intended  exercise,  there 
will  come  a  sense  of  satisfaction,  that 
after  the  pleasures  which  the  exercise 
of  these  endowments  has  afforded, 
have  passed  away,  there  remains  that 
pure  affection,  and  the  calm  satisfac- 
tion of  their  recollection. 

Every  man  who  notes  how  much 
greater   the   changes  and  more  fierce 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  63 

the  struggles  through  which  almost 
every  woman  is  called  upon  to  pass  at 
this  period  of  what  is  called  "  change 
of  life,"  cannot  but  be  grateful,  that  in 
his  own  nature  these  changes  are  more 
gradual,  and  the  consequences  almost 
imperceptible,  except  at  considerable 
intervals,  and  his  trials,  after  all,  noth- 
ing as  compared  with  the  more  griev- 
ous struggles  from  which  most  women 
cannot  wholly  escape.  Every  man 
who  experiences  in  his  own  nature 
these  less  marked  changes  which  are 
taking  place,  has  a  sense  of  compensa- 
tion in  the  fact  that  what  he  is  ex- 
periencing in  his  own  physical  nature 
qualifies  him  the  better  to  sympathize, 
at  least  in  some  measure,  Avith  her 
whom  he  has  loved  all  these  years,  and 
who  is  now  called  upon  to  bear  phys- 
ical, mental,  and  nervous  changes  which 
call  for  the  utmost  patience  and  for- 
bearance, not  only  upon  the  part  of 
the  wife  herself,  but  upon  the  part  of 
every  person  who  shares  her  lot  in  life 
with  her.  While  many  women  pass 
the  period  of  menopause  almost  as  un- 


64  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

consciously  as  a  person  in  a  railroad 
train  crosses  the  boundary  of  one  state 
and  enters  the  territory  of  another, 
yet  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  the 
accomplishment  of  these  changes  ex- 
tends over  a  considerable  period,  and 
in  some  instances  continues  for  years, 
calling  for  the  largest  measure  of  sym- 
pathy and  endurance  which  the  hus- 
band has  ever  been  called  upon  to  ex- 
ercise, and  which  no  true  and  devoted 
man  should  be  reluctant  to  give ;  but 
remembering  what  he  owes  to  the  wife 
of  his  bosom  and  the  mother  of  his 
children,  he  should  accord  to  her  all 
the  tenderness  that  the  situation  de- 
mands with  the  greatest  possible 
cheerfulness  and  consideration. 

There  are  some  men  whose  physical 
and  intellectual  forces  at  middle  life 
suffer  very  little  abatement,  but  this  is 
not  the  case  Avith  most  men.  With  the 
large  and  preponderating  majority 
there  is  less  pluck  and  push,  less 
courage  in  undertaking  and  pursuing 
new  enterprises  or  large  responsibili- 
ties.    The  sleep  is  likely  to  be  some- 


MAN    OF   FORTY- FIVE.  G5 

what  disturbed,  and  be  awakens  earlier 
in  the  morning.  Cares  and  anxieties 
which  formerly  were  easily  thrust 
aside,  now  leave  a  sense  of  nervous 
anxiety  ;  and  he  finds  in  his  own  ex- 
perience the  foreshadowing  of  those 
conditions  of  the  more  advanced  years 
which  still  lie  fifteen  or  twenty  years 
beyond,  "  when  they  shall  be  afraid  of 
that  which  is  high,  and  fears  shall  be 
in  the  way,  and  the  almond  tree  shall 
flourish,  and  the  grasshopper  shall  be  a 
burden,  and  desire  shall  fail." 

These  words  are  quoted  here  not  to 
produce  discouragement,  nor  to  add  to 
nervousness  anxiety,  but  in  order  that 
we  may  look  at  the  facts  just  as  they 
are. 

But,  while  what  we  have  said  is  true, 
nature  brings  returns  which  fully  com- 
pensate for  what  one  has  lost.  The 
fact  is  that  a  man  whose  life  has  been 
correct,  whose  health  is  not  impaired, 
whose  years  have  been  given  to 
thoughtful  study,  never  attains  his 
very  best  until  he  has  passed  this 
period    of    middle    life.     When    the 

5 


66  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

physical  masculine  nature  has  received 
its  modification,  the  real  man  within 
rises  in  a  might  and  majesty  never  be- 
fore possible.  The  mind  and  the  heart 
become  what  they  never  before  have 
been.  The  man  is  able  to  grasp,  hold 
and  analyze  a  subject  in  a  manner 
which  was  previously  not  possible  to 
him.  His  experience  is  enriched,  and 
the  holiest  affections  of  his  heart,  mel- 
lowed by  the  returning  frosts  of  per- 
sonal sorrow  and  repeated  trial,  ripen 
into  their  sweetest  tenderness.  In 
character,  in  manhood,  in  might,  in 
mental  grasp  and  grip,  he  becomes 
superior  to  himself  in  his  previous 
years.  If  he  does  not  attain  to  these 
results  it  is  because,  ignorant  of  the 
future  he  failed  to  improve  the  past ; 
because  he  has  lived  too  much  in  the 
round  of  physical  duties  or  sexual  ex- 
cesses ;  because  he  has  neglected  to 
care  properly  for  his  health,  has  failed 
to  cultivate  his  mind,  and  to  discipline 
his  heart.  If  in  the  past  he  has  been 
faithful  to  the  present,  then  with  the 
coming  of  middle  life,  he  enters  into 


MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  67 

that  larger  endowment,  that  clearer  in- 
sight, that  wider  outlook,  that  keener 
analysis,  that  more  accurate  judgment, 
and  that  larger  outgoing  of  the  heart 
in  holy  affections  which  are  so  greatly 
to  be  desired  in  men  to  whom  both 
time  and  experience  have  opened  their 
largest  and  richest  treasures. 

We  have  frequently  thought  that  the 
intellectual  change  might  be  aptly  com- 
pared to  the  difference  between  the  re- 
sults which  are  secured  in  the  taking  of 
photographs.  In  the  earlier  years  the 
mind  is  more  like  the  sensitive  plate, 
prepared  for  the  taking  of  a  snap  shot 
picture.  In  middle  life,  and  after,  the 
mind  is  more  like  the  plate  which  is 
prepared  for  a  slight  time-exposure, 
but  which,  under  the  skilful  manage- 
ment of  an  experienced  operator,  se- 
cures a  finer  and  more  desirable  result. 
Experience  teaches  every  one  the  pos- 
sibility of  mistake  and  failure,  and  at 
middle  life  there  comes  that  added 
caution  and  consideration  which  lends 
so  much  truth  to  the  statement,  "  young 
men  for  war,  and  old  men  for  counsel." 


68  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

It  is  this  that  causes  us  to  prefer  to 
trust  our  lives  to  the  judgment  of  men 
of  years  and  experience,  and  to  call  to 
our  cabinet  of  advisers,  those  whose 
judgments  have  been  matured  by  years 
of  experience. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

MODERATION  ENJOINED. 

Effects  in  Different  Men  of  the  Sexual  Hush. — 
Moderation  Necessary  in  All  Instances. — Effect 
of  Prolonged  Mental  Effort.— Of  Long  Con- 
tinued Physical  Effort. — Effect  of  Anxiety  and 
Worry. — Dangers  from  Lawsuits. — The  Victims 
of  Social  Exactions. — Importance  of  Adequate 
Rest  and  Sleep. — Some  Helpful  Suggestions 
Concerning  Insomnia. 

To  what  extent  each  person  will 
be  perceptibly  affected  by  the  modifi- 
cations of  the  male  nature  which  take 
place  in  middle  life,  it  would  be  im- 
possible always  accurately  to  predict. 
As  with  women  so  with  men,  there  are 
those  who  pass  the  climacteric  period 
almost  unconsciously.  To  others  it  is 
a  period  of  special  stress  and  peril. 
Much  depends  upon  the  physical  en- 
dowment, the  previous  mode  of  life, 
the  character  of  the  individual's  occu- 
pation at  the  time  the  period  arrives, 
and  many  other  considerations. 

69 


70  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

"Whether  the  period  of  climacteric 
change  comes  early  in  life  or  later; 
whether  attended  by  changes  of  a 
more  or  less  marked  character,  yet  to 
one  and  to  all  there  is  the  necessity  for 
the  same  admonition  and  caution  with 
regard  to  excess. 

The  individual  who  has  been  given 
to  intellectual  effort,  and  who  has 
found  it  easy  to  give  himself  absorb- 
ingly for  long  periods  to  careful  study 
and  investigation,  to  devote  himself  to 
writing  and  literary  work,  there  is 
very  sure  to  come  at  this  period  a 
growing  consciousness  that  the  amount 
of  intellectual  effort  which  was  pre- 
viously attended  with  no  unusual 
weariness,  is  now  followed  by  a 
greater  languor  and  a  more  prolonged 
fatigue.  Nature  begins  to  give  those 
warnings  which  admonish  against  all 
forms  of  excess. 

What  is  true  of  intellectual  effort  is 
true  also  of  physical  effort.  Prolonged 
hours  of  labor  are  attended  with  un- 
usual weariness,  and  if  oft  repeated 
or  long   continued,  may  be  attended 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  71 

with  exhaustion  or  even  with  prostra- 
tion. 

Undue  mental  anxiety  at  this  period 
of  life  is  specially  to  be  avoided.  It  is 
not  wise  to  assume  large  financial  risks, 
involving  special  hazard  and  attended 
with  anxiety  and  worry.  Where  lim- 
ited financial  resources  are  inadequate 
to  meet  accruing  obligations  or  daily 
demands,  every  effort  should  be  made 
to  keep  the  mind  hopeful,  and  as  far  as 
possible  to  throw  off  every  source  of 
anxiety  and  worry. 

Complicated  legal  difficulties  are  to 
be  specially  avoided  at  this  period  of 
life.  Hundreds  of  men  are  made  phys- 
ical wrecks  because  of  the  anxieties  and 
mental  strains  which  come  with  law- 
suits at  this  period.  The  strain  of 
such  anxiety  cannot  usually  be  thrown 
off  after  a  few  days  of  worry,  but  gen- 
erally extend  over  a  long  period.  It  is 
not  only  nervous  prostration  which  is 
to  be  feared,  but  any  one  of  a  score  of 
other  physical  infirmities  are  likely  to 
follow  as  the  result  of  such  mental 
anxiety. 


72  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

But  a  man  is  to  be  guarded  not  only 
upon  the  side  of  daily  duty,  but  upon 
the  side  of  social  exactions  as  well. 
Thousands  of  women  are  annually 
slain  by  what  they  regard  as  the  un- 
avoidable demands  of  "  social  duties ;  " 
and  hundreds  of  men  are  also  claimed 
as  its  victims.  Late  hours  in  over- 
crowded auditoriums,  breathing  im- 
pure air,  or  in  social  gatherings,  eating 
indigestible  food  at  late  hours,  and  in 
either  instance  subjecting  the  entire 
man  to  abnormal  excitement  and 
strains  during  the  very  hours  which 
nature  has  not  only  provided,  but 
which  she  now  absolutely  demands 
for  rest  and  recuperation,  are  sure  to 
bring  their  own  sad  results. 

It  is  at  this  period  of  life  that  nature 
demands  its  full  quota  of  sleep  and  rest, 
so  that  the  renewing  and  rebuilding 
processes  which  are  becoming  more 
tardy  and  which  now  require  more 
time,  should  not  be  interrupted  by  loss 
of  sleep.  It  is  at  this  period  of  life  that 
men  naturally  prefer  the  quiet  of  their 
own  homes  in  the  evening,  and  wisely 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  73 

find  a  growing  tendency  to  retire  at  an 
earlier  hour. 

Those    who    are    troubled   with    a 
growing    tendency   to   insomnia  may 
find   relief  in  the   following  valuable 
suggestion.     If  the  mind  is  permitted 
to  accumulate   momentum,   the   sleep 
will  be  interrupted,  the  nervous  forces, 
instead  of  being  rested  and  renewed, 
will  become   exhausted,   and   leave   a 
sense  of  great  fatigue.     It  is  therefore 
necessary  to  arrest  the  mind  as  early  as 
possible.     As  prevention  is  better  than 
cure,  it  is  best  of  all  to  retire  with  the 
distinct  and  definite  purpose  of  going 
to  sleep.     When  there  is  a  tendency  to 
wakefulness,  the  mind  may  be  diverted 
and  put  into  a  cheerful  frame  by  dwell- 
ing   for  a  few   moments  upon   some 
pleasant  stanza  or  two  of  poetry,  or 
where  the  individual  is  religious,  the 
devotional  frame  of  mind  will  be  found 
to  be  the  very  best,  and  this  may  be  at- 
tained by  the  use  of   some  scriptural 
passage  like  the  first  five  verses  of  the 
one  hundred  and  third  Psalm  begin- 
ning:     "Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul; 


74  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

and  all  that  is  within  nie,  bless  His 
holy  name.  Bless  the  Lord,  0  my 
soul  and  forget  not  all  His  benefits." 
Such  passages  as  this  dwelt  upon  men- 
tally, and  given  their  largest  freightage 
of  spiritual  meaning  will  arrest  the 
mind  from  the  contemplation  of  sub- 
jects which  are  likely  to  bring  anxiety 
and  worry,  and  make  the  mind  more 
sympathetic  to  the  effort  which  is  to 
follow. 

If  the  mind  should  be  found  to  be 
excessively  active,  and  cannot  be  ar- 
rested by  the  suggestion  which  we 
have  just  made,  it  would  be  well  to  try 
some  stanza  of  poetry,  or  of  a  hymn, 
or  the  long  meter  doxology  ;  thinking 
not  only  the  words,  but  the  music  and 
letting  the  meter  become  longer  and 
longer  as  the  mind  passes  more  slowly 
and  still  more  slowly,  from  word  to 
word,  arresting  the  momentum  of  the 
mind  very  much  like  a  bicycler  arrests 
the  momentum  of  his  wheel  by  the 
effort  of  back  pedaling,  until  gradu- 
ally, slower  and  slower,  he  brings  his 
wheel  to  a  standstill.     A  few  repeti- 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  75 

tions  of  this  effort  is  likely  to  result  in 
unconsciousness  and  sleep. 

When  the  mind  has  been  arrested,  a 
cheerful  or  devotional  frame  has  been 
secured — and  both  of  these  results  may 
frequently  be  obtained  in  the  course  of 
a  couple  of  minutes — if  the  individual 
will  take  deep  inhalations,  and  breathe 
just  as  though  he  were  asleep,  he  will, 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  be  likely 
to  drop  off  into  unconsciousness,  which 
will  extend  itself  into  a  night  of  the  very 
sweetest  and  most  refreshing  sleep. 

When  the  effort  to  count  imaginary 
sheep  as  they  jump  over  a  fence,  to 
place  the  houses  in  a  street,  and  the 
various  other  mental  efforts  often 
attempted  have  failed,  the  above  sug- 
gestions will  be  found  of  infinitely 
more  assistance  and  value.  Where  the 
suggestions  which  we  have  made  are 
carefully  followed,  they  are  likely  to 
save  from  the  necessity  of  the  sitz 
bath  and  other  means  which  oftentimes 
become  necessary  where  extreme  re- 
sults have  not  been  avoided  by  early 
and  judicious  methods. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MODERATION   EMPHASIZED. 

Far-reaching  Effects  of  Sexual  Excess  in  Middle 
Life. — Coition  Followed  by  Longer  Periods  of 
Lassitude. — Nature  thus  Sounding  Her  "Warn- 
ings.— Moderation  for  Husband's  Own  Well- 
being  and  That  of  Wife.— Character  of  the  Mod- 
eration as  Shown  by  Medical  Authorities. — 
Dr.  William  Acton,  of  London,  Quoted. — Ex- 
perience in  Middle  Life  Teaches  Moderation. — 
Vital  Exuberance  Needed  for  the  Transmission 
of  Life. — Testimony  of  Dr.  M.  Parise  of  France. 
— Changed  Character  of  Love  at  Middle  Life. — 
Statements  of  Cicero  and  Plato  on  Moderation. 
— The  Strong  Statements  of  Doctor  Napheys. — 
Other  Medical  Men  Quoted.— Nature's  Punish- 
ment of  Libidinous  Old  Men. — Some  Humili- 
ating Pictures  Presented  by  Medical  Men. — 
Sowing  to  the  Flesh  and  Reaping  Corruption. 

At  the  period  of  middle  life  it  is 
highly  important  that  every  person 
should  be  forewarned  concerning  cer- 
tain excesses  which  will  now  leave  in 
their  train  consequences  of  the  most 
serious    character — consequences   such 


78  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

as  were  altogether  unknown  in  the 
earlier  years.  The  possession  of  such 
information  will  save  its  possessor  from 
many  sad  results.  In  view  of  the  fact 
that  nearly  all  of  the  changes  which 
take  place  in  the  physical  nature  of 
man  at  this  period  are  largely  due  to 
the  changes  which  take  place  in  the  re- 
productive nature,  it  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  that  he  should  fully  under- 
stand that  sexual  excess  at  this  time 
will  entail  results  which  are  far-reach- 
ing and  oftentimes  serious  in  their  ef- 
fects. Even  men  whose  powers  of  en- 
durance have  never  before  sug-g-ested 
any  considerable  restraint  of  the  sexual 
inclination,  will  now  find  that  the  act 
of  coition  is  generally  followed  by  a 
period  of  lassitude  or  weariness  more 
pronounced  and  more  prolonged  than 
anything  he  has  previously  experienced. 
Nature  is  thus  sounding  her  warnings 
and  admonishing  the  individual  of  the 
importance  of  the  utmost  care  in  the 
use  of  a  secretion  which  can  now  ill 
be  spared,  and  which  is  of  utmost  im- 
portance in  vitalizing  every  department 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  79 

of  the  physical  economy.  Nature  is 
now  beginning  to  teach  the  individual 
that  that  period  of  life  during  which 
the  procreative  power  may  be  exercised 
is  gradually  passing  away ;  and  that 
the  individual  should  assume  that  mas- 
tery and  control  of  his  sexual  inclina- 
tion which  will,  throughout  the  coming 
years,  enable  him  to  conserve  and 
maintain  his  physical  and  intellectual 
powers,  which  are  to  continue  to  be  to 
him  of  the  utmost  importance. 

It  is  at  this  period  that  each  man 
needs  carefully  to  consider  the  obliga- 
tions which  are  upon  him  to  maintain 
a  life  of  most  careful  and  judicious 
moderation.  He  is  not  only  to  con- 
sider this  because  of  his  own  well- 
being,  but  he  is  also  to  consider  it,  be- 
cause of  the  comfort,  physical  well- 
being  and  happiness  of  his  wife. 

Something  of  what  this  moderation 
should  be  will  be  gleaned  from  some 
quotations  from  medical  authorities 
which  will  not  only  throw  light  upon 
this  subject,  but  which  will  also  afford 
the  reader  that  information  and  coun- 


80  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

sel  which  is  so  essential  at  the  period 
of  middle  life. 

Dr.  William  Acton  in  his  standard 
work  on  the  reproductive  organs  says : 
"  My  readers  will  by  this  time  have  be- 
come aware  that  in  childhood  the  gen- 
erative functions  should  be  absolutely 
quiescent,  that  even  in  youth  the  sex- 
ual powers  are  rather  to  be  husbanded 
than  taxed,  and  that  the  adult  himself 
should  be  chary  of  exhausting  those 
capacities  which  nature  has  given  him 
for  the  continuance  of  his  species. 

"  We  have  now  to  consider  those 
functions,  powers  and  desires  in  ad- 
vanced life ;  and  it  will  appear  that  old 
age  resembles  youth  in  this,  that  if  the 
elderly  man  wishes  to  preserve  his  in- 
tellectual faculties,  health,  and  vigor, 
and  would  enjoy  a  long  life,  he  must 
be  content  with,  at  most,  only  a  very 
moderate  indulgence  of  the  sexual 
passion.  His  motto  should  be  'de- 
posui  arma  miles  inermis.' 

"  Fortunately  for  the  individual, 
moderation  is  usually  practiced.  The 
elderly  man  has  generally  learned  from 


3IAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  81 

experience  that  the  generative  function 
could  not  have  been  wisely,  or,  indeed, 
duly  exercised,  before  the  body  had 
attained  its  entire  development — that 
it  is  the  test  of  manhood,  the  crown- 
ing effort  of  maturity,  and  that  it 
must  diminish  with  a  waning  frame. 
Experience  ought  to  have  taught  men 
that  we  require  a  sort  of  vital  exuber- 
ance, to  transmit  what  may  become 
another  being;  and  this  prerogative 
is  given  to  us  only  during  the  prime  of 
our  existence." 

Dr.  M.  Parise,  for  many  years  Secre- 
tary of  the  Royal  Academy  in  France, 
says :  "  Love  at  the  decline  of  life 
should  take  quite  a  moral  character, 
freed  from  all  its  animal  propensities. 
In  the  elderly  man  it  is  paternal,  con- 
jugal, patriotic  attachment,  which, 
without  being  so  energetic  as  the  love 
experienced  in  youth,  still  warms  old 
hearts  and  old  age — and,  believe  me, 
these  have  their  sweet  privileges,  as 
well  as  sometimes  their  bitter  realities. 
These  autumn  roses  are  not  without 
perfume — perhaps     less     intoxicating 

6 


82  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

than  that  arising  from  first  love,  but 
presenting  none  of  its  dangers. 

"  One  of  the  most  important  pieces 
of  information  which  a  man  in  years 
can  attain  is,  '  to  learn  to  become  old 
betimes,'  if  he  wishes  to  attain  old  age. 
Cicero,  we  are  told,  was  asked  if  he 
still  indulged  in  the  pleasures  of  love. 
'  Heaven  forbid  ! '  replied  he,  '  I  have 
forsworn  it  as  I  would  a  savage  and  a 
ferocious  master.'  " 

In  the  opening  part  of  Plato's  Re- 
public, the  merry  old  Cephalus  says  : 
"  I  was  once  in  company  with  Sopho- 
cles, the  poet,  when  he  was  asked  by 
some  one, '  How  do  you  feel,  Sophocles, 
as  to  the  pleasures  of  love  ?  Are  you 
still  able  to  enjoy  them  ? '  '  Softly, 
friend,'  replied  he, '  most  gladly  indeed 
have  I  escaped  from  these  pleasures, 
as  from  some  furious  and  savage 
masters.'  " 

Dr.  George  H.  Napheys  in  "The 
Transmission  of  Life,"  says :  "  Those 
who  are  already  in  the  enjoyment  of 
good  health  will  need  but  few  instruc- 
tions to  retain  their  strength  at  this 


MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  83 

period  of  life.  They  must,  however, 
bear  in  mind  the  approach  of  advanc- 
ing years,  and  the  facility  to  disease 
■which,  ever  accompanies  declining  age. 
Therefore  they  must  avoid  all  excesses, 
restrict  the  indulgence  of  desire  within 
moderate  bounds,  and  if  unmarried, 
live  lives  not  only  continent  but  chaste, 
avoiding  not  merely  vices  which  are 
condemned  both  by  statute  and  reli- 
gion, but  also  all  impure  thoughts  and 
conversations ;  for  the  latter,  as  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  show  more  fully 
hereafter,  are  enervating  to  the  body 
as  well  as  demoralizing  to  the  mind. 
The  functions  of  sex  are  so  intimately 
allied  to  the  mental  condition  that  the 
one  sympathizes  invariably  with  the 
other,  and  what  degrades  one,  with 
little  short  of  absolute  certainty,  im- 
pairs the  other. 

"  Then  the  man  at  middle  life  should 
be  aware  that  to  insure  either  a  re- 
spected or  a  happy  old  age,  he  must  at 
least  make  up  his  mind  to  renounce 
forever  the  exercise  of  his  sexual  pow- 
ers, and  with  this  in  view,  he  should, 


84  31  AN   OF   FORTY- FIVE. 

as  years  progress,  steadily  wean  him- 
self more  and  more  from  the  control  of 
desire,  and  fix  his  thoughts  upon  those 
philanthropic  and  unselfish  projects 
which  add  beauty  to  age,  and  are  the 
crown  to  gray  hairs.  What  more  nau- 
seous and  repulsive  object  than  a  libidi- 
nous and  worn-out  old  man,  heating  his 
diseased  imagination  with  dreams  and 
images  which  his  chilled  and  impotent 
body  can  no  longer  carry  into  effect  ?  " 

Dr.  J.  H.  Kellogg  says:  "Some 
learned  physicians  place  the  proper 
limit  of  man's  functional  activity  at 
fifty  years,  if  he  would  not  render 
himself  guilty  of  shortening  his  days 
by  sensuality." 

The  Abbe  Maury  is  quoted  by  Doc- 
tor Gardner  as  follows :  "  I  hold  as 
certain  that  after  fifty  years  of  age  a 
man  of  sense  ought  to  renounce  the 
pleasures  of  love.  Each  time  that  he 
allows  himself  this  gratification  is  a 
pellet  of  earth  thrown  upon  his  coffin." 

While  the  effects  which  the  observ- 
ant and  the  thoughtful  experience  after 
the  act  of  coition  is  a  sufficient  moni- 


M AN    OF  FORTY-FIVE.  85 

tion  to  them  to  desist  in  the  exercise 
of  the  reproductive  function  and  the 
loss  of  life's  vital  fluid,  yet  there  are 
those  who  demonstrate  in  their  own 
conduct  the  wisdom  of  the  old  adage 
"  An  old  fool  is  the  worst  kind  of  a 
fool." 

Doctor  Parise,  the  distinguished 
French  physician,  whom  we  have  re- 
cently quoted  in  his  "work  on  "  Old 
Age,"  in  speaking  of  these  libidinous 
old  libertines  says  :  "  Unfortunately, 
there  are  those  who,  either  more  in- 
fatuated, or  more  helplessly  drifting  on 
the  tide  of  passion,  or  more  depraved, 
use  all  their  endeavors  to  realize  de- 
sires which  it  is  no  longer  possible  to 
satisfy,  unless  by  a  forced  compliance 
of  the  organs.  Not  only  has  the  en- 
ergy, the  superfluous  vitality  of  early 
days,  disappeared,  but  the  organic 
power  of  reproduction  is  nearly  oblit- 
erated. '  Is  all  over  then  ? '  It  is 
now  that  Yenus  Impudica  lavishes  on 
her  used-up  votaries  her  appetizing 
stimulants  to  vice  and  debauchery,  the 
imagination,  polluted  with  impurities, 


86  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

seeks  pleasure  which  reason  and  good 
sense  repudiate.  There  are  instances 
of  debauched  and  shameless  old  age 
which,  deficient  in  vital  resources, 
strives  to  supply  their  place  by  ficti- 
tious excitement ;  a  kind  of  brutish 
lasciviousness,  that  is  ever  the  more 
cruelly  punished  by  nature,  from  the  fact 
that  the  immediately  ensuing  debility 
is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  forced 
stimulation  which  has  preceded  it. 

"  Reduced  to  the  pleasures  of  recol- 
lection, at  once  passionate  and  impo- 
tent, their  sensuality  may  kill,  but  can- 
not satiate.  There  are  such  old  liber- 
tines who  are  constantly  seeking  after 
the  means  of  revivifying  their  with- 
ered, used-up  organism,  as  if  that  were 
possible  without  imminent  danger. 
The  law  of  nature  is  without  appeal. 
To  submit  to  it  is  the  result  of  good, 
sound  judgment,  and  the  reward  is 
speedy.  But  submission  is  no  invaria- 
ble rule,  and  persons  of  prudence  and 
chastity  have  but  a  faint  conception  of 
the  devices  to  evade  it,  of  the  folly, 
caprice,  luxury,  immodesty,  the  mon- 


31  AN   OF   FORTY  FIVE.  87 

strous  lewdness  and  indescribable  satur- 
nalia of  the  senses  which  are  the  re- 
sult. The  surgeon  alone  knows  from 
the  confession  of  his  patients,  or  sur- 
mises from  his  experience,  to  what  a 
depth  corruption  will  descend,  and  the 
evils  which  will  follow,  particularly  in 
large  capitals.  One  of  the  most  com- 
mon means  of  excitement  employed  by 
these  senile  Lovelaces  is  change,  variety 
in  the  persons  they  pursue.  What  is 
more  fatal  to  the  organism  f  Extreme 
youth  is  sacrificed  to  these  shameless 
old  men.  The  full-blown  charms  of 
fine  women  no  longer  suffice  ;  they  ad- 
dress themselves  to  mere  children,  to 
the  great  scandal  of  our  manners,  and 
of  all  that  these  victims  of  debauchery 
hold  dear  and  sacred.  Nevertheless, 
let  it  be  remarked,  it  is  seldom,  very 
seldom,  that  punishment  comes  pede 
claudo  (with  a  sore  foot) ;  old  age, 
which  disease  changes  every  day  into 
decrepitude — often  sudden  death,  and 
death  that  lasts  for  years,  a  consequent 
of  cruel  infirmities — proves  the  justice 
of  nature." 


88  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

In  writing  upon  this  same  phase  of 
the  subject,  when  treating  of  the  deg- 
radation and  debauchery  of  old  men, 
another  writer  says  :  "  When  a  young 
man,  without  any  redeeming  qualities, 
has  run  through  a  career  of  de- 
bauchery, when  his  adult  age  is  but  a 
new  lease  of  similar  associations,  the 
necessity  for  additional  excitement  ap- 
pears to  goad  him  on.  Fictitious  de- 
sires increase,  until  it  is  impossible  to 
say  where  the  acme  of  debauchery 
shall  be  reached,  or  what  devices  may 
be  invented  by  those  in  his  pay  '  to 
minister  to  a  mind  diseased.'  This  is 
particularly  the  case  when  such  a  pam- 
pered, ill-directed,  unrestrained  will  is 
accompanied  by  unlimited  wealth. 
For  such  an  one,  youth,  innocence,  and 
beauty  soon  cease  to  have  attraction. 
"Well  has  it  been  said  of  him,  that '  The 
beast  has  destroyed  the  man.'  Variety 
may  for  a  time  satisfy  or  stimulate  his 
failing  powers,  but  not  for  very  long. 
Local  stimulants  are  tried,  and,  after 
a  short  repetition,  these  also  fail.  As 
a  last  resource,  unnatural  excitement 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  89 

is  brought  to  bear,  and  now  public 
decency  is  forgotten,  and  we  probably 
find  that  the  first  check  to  the  lust  of 
the  opulent  satyr  is  his  finding  himself 
the  hero  of  some  filthy  police  case, — 
then,  may  be,  a  convict  or  a  voluntary 
exile. 

"As  schoolboys,  we  may  have  been 
accustomed  to  laugh  at  the  fables  of 
the  grotesque  sylvan  monsters  of  an- 
tiquity, ignorant  of  what  hideous 
truths  of  human  nature  their  half-ani- 
mal forms  were  the  symbols.  Even 
after  sad  experience  has  enlarged  our 
knowledge  of  the  possibilities  of  vice, 
few  of  us,  happily,  have  any  idea  of 
how  completely  these  bestial  forms  of 
ancient  art  represent  the  condition  of 
the  satyrs  who  so  notoriously  affect 
the  seclusion  and  the  shade  of  the 
parks  and  gardens  in  modern  cities. 
I  question  if  a  prison  is  the  proper 
place  for  such  debased  individuals. 
As  far  as  I  have  noticed  their  organiza- 
tion, I  should  say  an  uncontrolled  giv- 
ing way  to  the  sexual  passion  has  used 
up  a  frame  never  very  strong.     The 


90  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

constant  drain  of  the  nervous  power 
has  produced  an  effect  which  rendered 
its  subject  indifferent  to  consequences, 
provided  his  all-absorbing  pursuit, 
namely,  ministering  to  the  excitement 
of  his  sexual  passion,  can  be  indulged 
in.  Doubtless,  in  many  instances,  the 
brain  has  become  affected,  particularly 
when  there  existed  a  strong  hereditary 
tendency  to  disease.  This,  together 
with  deficiency  of  occupation,  has 
caused  many  of  these  victims  to  their 
own  feelings  to  make  the  pandering  to 
their  vile  desire,  and  gratification  of 
every  sensuality  their  imagination  can 
devise,  the  chief  occupation  of  life. 
The  medical  man  would  hardly  feel 
justified  in  certifying  their  fitness  for 
a  lunatic  asylum,  as  in  all  other  respects 
their  conduct  appears  to  be  sane. 
Observing,  as  these  persons  do,  all  the 
other  usual  convenances  of  society, 
there  is  yet  a  something  about  them 
wilich  marks  them  as  thralls  of  a 
debasing  pursuit.  It  is  an  error,  how- 
ever, to  suppose  that  they  often  suffer 
from    venereal  disease.     Your  old  de- 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  91 

hauclies  know  too  well  the  parties  they 
have  to  deal  with,  and  every  precau- 
tion is  taken  to  avoid  the  consequences. 
They  are  living  and  suffering  spectres, 
whom,  some  clever  writer  has  observed, 
'  Death  seems  to  forget  to  strike,  be- 
cause he  believes  them  already  in  the 
tomb.' 

"  It  may,  perhaps,  be  thought  singu- 
lar in  my  suggesting  a  moral  based 
upon  such  vile  practices  as  the  above, 
but  allusion  to  them  may  not  be  with- 
out benefit  to  those  beginning  vice ; 
and  I  would  say,  Let  those  persons 
take  warning  who  with  an  active  im- 
agination once  enter  upon  a  career  of 
vice,  and  dream  that  at  a  certain  spot 
they  can  arrest  their  progress.  It  is 
an  old  tale,  and  often  told,  that,  al- 
though the  slope  of  criminality  be  easy 
and  gradual,  it  is  still  '  le  premier  pas 
qui  coute ' ;  and  he  who  launches  him- 
self on  such  a  course,  will  acquire,  as 
he  goes,  velocity  and  force,  until  at 
last  he  cannot  he  stayed." 

To  understand  the  full  meaning  of 
the  declaration,  "  He  that  soweth  to 


92  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

his  flesh,  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corrup- 
tion," one  needs  to  pass  beyond  the 
limit  of  the  sowing-time  of  youth  to 
the  years  of  reaping  which  come  at 
middle  life  and  old  age.  David  prayed 
"  Remember  not  the  sins  of  my  youth, 
nor  my  transgressions."  Ephraim 
mourned  and  smote  his  thigh  saying, 
"  I  was  ashamed,  yea,  even  confounded, 
because  I  did  bear  the  reproach  of  my 
youth."  Zophar,  showing  the  state  of 
the  wicked,  said,  "  His  bones  are  full 
of  the  sins  of  his  youth  which  shall  lie 
down  with  him  in  the  dust,"  and  Job 
declared,  "  For  thou  writest  bitter 
things  against  me,  and  makest  me  to 
possess  the  iniquities  of  my  youth." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

VIRILITY — HOW   DESTROYED,   HOW 
PRESERVED. 

Mutual  Dependence  of  Bodily  Vigor  and  Virility. 
— Development  of  Muscular  Strength  vs.  Pres- 
ervation of  Nervous  Force. — How  Virile  Power 
is  Prematurely  Sacrificed. — Sexual  Excess. — 
Relation  of  Food  to  Virile  Power. — Effects  of 
Stimulants. — Effects  of  Bodily  Disease. — Imper- 
fect Mastication  of  Food. — Insufficient  Sleep. — 
Importance  of  Exercise  and  Recreation. — Cycling 
and  Horseback  Riding. —  Defective  Saddles. — 
Cheerful  Companionship. — Importance  of  Well- 
chosen  Occupation. — The  Comforting  View  for 
Men  of  Middle  Life  to  Take  of  Physical  Changes. 

As  the  vigor  of  both  the  body  and 
the  mind  are  dependent  upon  the  best 
possible  maintenance  of  virility,  and 
as  in  turn  virility  is  dependent  upon 
the  physical  conditions,  it  is  important 
that  we  should  consider,  at  least  briefly, 
some  of  the  causes  which  destroy  vi- 
rility and  some  of  the  best  means  for 
its  preservation. 

93 


94  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

As  the  whole  body  shares  in  the 
benefits  of  those  influences  which  tend 
to  strengthen  and  perpetuate  virile 
power,  and  as  they  suffer  from  what- 
ever tends  to  destroy  virility,  it  is 
manifestly  important  to  defer  its  loss 
to  the  most  distant  day  possible. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  exercise 
and  use  tend  to  the  development  of 
muscular  tissue  and  the  acquisition  of 
muscular  power,  but  with  functions 
that  stand  closely  related  to  the  nerv- 
ous system,  like  that  involved  in  the 
reproduction  of  life,  the  reverse  is  the 
case.  By  use  a  muscle  increases  in 
strength  and  decreases  in  irritability, 
but  with  a  nerve  the  opposite  is  the 
case.  Eepeated  calls  upon  it  result  in 
increased  irritability  and  a  diminution 
in  tone  and  strength.  It  will  therefore 
be  seen  that  in  order  to  preserve  the 
nervous  svstem  in  its  best  form,  we 
should  seek  to  stimulate  and  excite  it 
as  little  as  possible.  The  preservation 
of  nervous  force  and  power  is  there- 
fore essential  at  all  periods  of  life,  but 
especially  at  middle  life  and  beyond, 


MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  95 

and  therefore,  while  it  is  not  necessary 
that  the  sexual  inclination  should  be 
immolated,  yet  all  sexual  stimulants 
and  excitements  should  be  carefully 
avoided. 

It  is  important  therefore  to  ask,  how 
is  virility  prematurely  sacrificed  ? 

The  first  and  most  frequent  cause  is 
sexual  excess.  After  what  we  have  al- 
ready said  in  the  preceding  chapters,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  dwell  further  upon 
this  subject.  It  is,  however,  important 
to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  what 
might  have  been  moderate  in  an  ear- 
lier period  of  life,  may  now,  because  of 
changed  conditions  and  attendant  re- 
sults, be  regarded  as  excessive,  for 
what  is  moderation  at  one  time  may 
be  excess  at  another  period.  While 
perhaps  few  physicians  would  enforce 
absolute  continence  upon  men  of  good 
bodily  vigor  at  the  period  of  middle  life, 
yet  Doctor  Parise,  the  eminent  French- 
man, says,  "  When  you  see  an  elderly 
man,  judicious,  endowed  with  firm  rea- 
son, whose  enlightened  and  active  mind 
is  still  capable  of  directing  his  affairs 


96  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

ably,  and  making  himself  useful  to  so- 
ciety, be  convinced  that  such  a  man  is 
discreet  and  continent,  and  that  tem- 
perance— so  justly  called  Sophrosyne, 
the  Guardian  of  Wisdom,  by  the  an- 
cients— has  in  him  a  fervent  admirer ; 
in  fact,  he  has  acquired  his  perfect 
moral  liberty." 

Yirile  power  may  suffer  and  be  pre- 
maturely destroyed  because  of  insuffi- 
cient food,  or  because  the  food,  al- 
though sufficient,  may  not  be  nutritive 
in  quality ;  for  a  sufficient  quantity  of 
the  best  food  may  be  so  poorly  mas- 
ticated as  to  render  digestion  difficult 
or  even  impossible,  and  not  only  the 
sexual  powers,  but  the  entire  body  may 
be  famished  and  starved  in  the  midst 
of  abundance  and  plenty. 

Physical  or  mental  effort  unduly 
prolonged,  sorrow,  grief  or  excessive 
worry  tends  to  the  destruction  of  virile 
power. 

It  is  agreed  by  all  physicians  that 
the  habitual  or  frequent  use  of  alco- 
holic liquors,  opium  and  tobacco,  is 
hostile  to  virile  power  and  tends  to  its 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  97 

premature  destruction.  The  earliest 
effects  of  the  use  of  narcotics  is  to 
stimulate  the  sexual  propensities,  and 
on  this  account,  liquors  and  tobacco, 
and  even  opium,  are  quite  generally 
associated  with  houses  of  prostitution. 
This  temporary  stimulation,  however, 
is  always  followed  by  reaction,  and 
the  eventual  result  of  its  use  is  the 
ruin  of  sexual  power.  Temperance 
and  moderation  are  indispensable  pre- 
requisites to  those  who  would  main- 
tain and  preserve  their  virility  to  an 
advanced  period  of  life. 

What  is  true  of  liquor,  tobacco  and 
opium,  is  also  measurably  true  of  tea, 
coffee  and  other  narcotics.  Tea  and 
coffee,  if  used  at  all,  should  therefore 
be  used  in  moderation. 

As  the  reproductive  system  is  inti- 
mately associated  with  all  the  other 
functions  of  the  body,  it  will  be  easily 
understood  that  when  one  member 
suffers,  all  suffer.  On  this  account 
any  bodily  disease  or  infirmity  is  likely 
to  have  its  sympathetic  or  reflex  influ- 
ence upon  reproductive  power. 

7 


98  MAS    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

Those  who  would  preserve  their  vi- 
rility to  old  age  should  be  careful  to 
choose  wholesome  and  nutritions  food. 

In  quantity  it  should  neither  be  defi- 
cient nor  excessive.  It  should  be  thor- 
oughly masticated,  and  to  this  end  it 
is  important  that  one  should  look  care- 
fully after  the  condition  of  the  teeth, 
which  are  likely  to  begin  to  deteriorate 
quite  rapidly  at  the  period  of  middle 
life.  The  money  spent  with  the  den- 
tist may  be  returned  many  fold  in 
healthful  vigor,  and  a  saving  in  the 
doctor's  bills. 

There  are  many  persons  who  bring 
about  general  debility  by  late  hours 
and  insufficient  sleep.  At  middle  life 
those  organs  of  the  human  body  which 
are  assigned  the  duty  of  rebuilding 
and  preserving  the  physical  powers 
become  less  active  and  require  more 
time  for  the  accomplishment  of  their 
tasks.  If  their  duty  is  not  rendered 
difficult  and  even  impossible,  the  work- 
ing and  depleting  hours  should  not  be 
unduly  prolonged.  Rest  and  sleep  will 
greatly  facilitate  the  recuperative  pow- 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  99 

ers  in  the  complete  accomplishment  of 
their  important  work. 

No  man  at  middle  life  can  afford  to 
yield  to  that  tendency  to  become  inac- 
tive which  usually  attends  the  changes 
through  which  he  is  passing.  Health- 
ful and  enlivening  recreations  should 
be  constantly  sought  and  heartily  en- 
gaged in.  The  distinction  which  Ave 
have  made  in  previous  volumes  between 
exercise  and  recreation,  should  be  care- 
fully observed,  and  even  where  there 
has  been  sufficient  exercise,  recreation 
must  not  be  dispensed  with. 

In  the  choice  of  one's  recreations,  he 
should  be  careful  to  avoid  those  which 
may  tend  to  injurious  results  at  this 
period  of  life,  discriminating  carefully 
against  those  which  tend,  either  be- 
cause of  their  associations  or  influences, 
to  excite  the  sexual  propensities,  or- 
which  may  produce  local  irritation  and 
result  in  the  premature  or  undue  en- 
largement of  the  prostate  gland,  which 
is  such  a  common  source  of  trouble  to 
men  of  middle  life  and  beyond. 

To  this  end,  it  is  important  to  guard 


100  MAN    OF   FORTY- FIVE. 

carefully  against  cycling  with  an  un- 
sanitary saddle,  or  riding  horseback, 
unless  the  pressure  can  be  removed  from 
the  perineum,  and  the  constant  irrita- 
tion of  the  prostate  gland.  Where  one 
is  already  suffering  from  any  local  ir- 
ritation at  the  neck  of  the  bladder,  it 
is  well  to  note  carefully  whether  the 
effects  of  the  jar  or  vibration  of  horse- 
back riding  and  cycling  may  not  be  in- 
jurious in  their  results.  The  unsanitary 
saddles  long  in  use  have  caused  thou- 
sands of  men  to  suffer  prematurely  from 
effects  which  they  might  otherwise 
have  escaped  until  late  in  life. 

As  far  as  possible,  those  who  seek 
the  best  endowments  for  the  closing 
years  of  life,  should  carefully  seek 
cheerful  companionship.  Such  is  not 
possible  to  all  persons,  nor  possible  at 
all  times  to  the  same  person,  yet  any 
individual  may  bring  with  him  a  young 
heart  and  a  spirit  of  good  cheer  into 
any  company,  and  by  the  effects  of  his 
own  influence  enjoy  that  reflex  benefit 
which  will  be  his  adequate  reward. 

Perhaps  no  other  one  thing  contrib- 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  101 

utes  so  much  to  good  health  and  virility 
as  a  well-chosen  occupation.  It  calls  the 
physical  and  intellectual  powers  into 
their  best  exercise,  turns  the  thought 
into  healthful  and  productive  channels, 
and  secures  for  the  individual  the  very 
best  results.  Many  a  man  is  ruined 
and  becomes  prematurely  old  because 
he  has  lost  or  lacks  an  occupation  which 
will  call  all  his  powers  into  their  most 
healthful  exercise.  A  man  can  scarcely 
make  a  more  fatal  mistake  than  to  ac- 
cumulate a  fortune  and  then  retire  from 
business  at  middle  life.  The  selfish 
who  pursue  this  course  reap  their  own. 
sad  reward,  while  those  who  know 
how  to  use  the  money  accumulated  in 
successful  business  undertakings  for  the 
benefit  of  their  fellow-men,  and  for  the 
furtherance  of  every  worthy  charity, 
will  find  no  need  of  retiring,  because 
they  have  accumulated  all  they  can 
personally  use  during  their  own  life. 
Nature  generally  looks  well  to  it  that 
such  selfish  and  useless  persons  are 
hastened  in  their  departure  from  the 
stage  of  action. 


102  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

We  are  anxious  that  what  we  have 
said  should  not  be  understood  to  teach 
that  virile  power  always  departs  from 
men  in  ordinary  bodily  vigor  at  the 
period  of  middle  life.  Such  is  not  the 
case.  But  we  have  desired  in  the  pre- 
ceding paragraphs  and  chapters  to 
familiarize  men  of  about  forty-five  and 
beyond,  with  conditions  which  should 
admonish  them  of  the  importance  of 
thoughtfulness,  caution  and  modera- 
tion. "Where  the  admonitions  which  we 
have  given  are  duly  observed,  virile 
power,  with  all  of  its  attendant  endow- 
ments and  blessings,  may  be  measurably 
retained  far  on  into  advanced  life. 
Something  of  what  the  virile  power  in 
old  men  of  good  bodily  vigor  usually 
is,  will  appear  in  a  later  chapter  upon 
marriage. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  what  has 
been  taught  in  the  preceding  pages 
may  bring  a  sense  of  sadness  and  re- 
gret to  those  to  whom  this  information 
comes  as  a  new  revelation,  it  might  be 
well  to  close  this  chapter  by  a  couple 
of  quotations  which  should  bring  satis- 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  103 

faction  and  pleasure  to  any  who  may 
note  in  themselves  the  earliest  moni- 
tions of  the  decline  of  procreative 
power  and  of  sexual  inclination. 

"  Generally,"  says  Doctor  Napheys, 
"  and  always  in  the  healthy  state,  step 
by  step  with  these  physical  changes  the 
passions  likewise  lose  their  force,  and 
change  in  nature.  Love,  which  in 
early  youth  was  impetuous  and  sen- 
sual, which  in  middle  life  was  power- 
ful, but  controlled  and  centred  in  the 
family,  should  at  the  decline  of  life  be 
freed  from  animal  propensities,  assume 
a  purely  moral  character,  and  be  di- 
rected toward  the  younger  generations, 
the  children  and  grandchildren,  or, 
when  these  are  not,  should  find  its 
proper  sphere  of  activity  in  philan- 
thropic endeavor  and  patriotic  attach- 
ment. 

"  Like  the  ancient  philosopher,  the 
old  should  be  able  to  recall  the  mem- 
ory of  departed  pleasure  without  a  sigh 
of  vain  regret,  and  they  should  adapt 
themselves  with  determined  mind  to  the 
altered  condition  of  their  physical  life. 


104  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

"  If  this  prospect  seems  a  cheerless 
one  to  the  fiery  youth  or  the  vigorous 
adult,  let  him  remember  that  desire 
subsides  with  power,  and  that  it  is  still 
within  his  reach,  by  the  observance  of 
wise  precautions  and  the  proper  rule  of 
life  to  extend  the  period  of  virility 
considerably  beyond  the  limit  we  have 
set  to  it." 

Dr.  Lyman  B.  Sperry  in  his  book  en- 
titled "Husband  and  Wife,"  says: 
"  Every  elderly  man  should  feel  con- 
tent to  see  his  virility  die  a  natural  and 
easy  death,  for  thereby  his  general 
vitality  is  preserved  and  his  higher 
powers  are  permitted  to  develop  and 
ripen  undisturbed. 

"  What  is  there  more  beautiful  and 
inspiring  than  an  aged  married  couple 
who  have  lived  together  many  years, 
in  sympathy  with  each  other  and  in 
harmony  with  God's  beneficent  laws  ? 
It  is  many  years  since  they  first  met 
and  learned  to  love  each  other  so 
fondly  and  truly ;  discovering  their 
mutual  love,  they  pledged  themselves 
to  each  other  for  life,  and  united  all 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIFE.  105 

their  worldly  interests ;  they  estab- 
lished a  home ;  they  reared  a  family 
of  children,  thereby  obeying  the  in- 
stinctive physiological  law  and  also  the 
written  command,  to  '  multiply  and 
replenish  the  earth  and  subdue  it ' ; 
they  ripened  and  sweetened  with  the 
years  which  fed  the  flame  of  their  de- 
voted and  unselfish  passion.  Each 
child,  as  it  was  added  to  the  household, 
enlarged  their  conception  of  respon- 
sibility to  humanity,  and  multiplied 
the  joy  which  resulted  from  consciously 
cooperating  with  God  in  the  perpetua- 
tion and  perfecting  of  the  race.  As 
their  children,  one  after  another,  left 
the  family  hearth  to  establish  homes 
of  their  own,  and  as  grandchildren 
opportunely  came  to  create  anew  the 
healthful  atmosphere  of  childhood,  the 
grandparents  inhaled  it  with  fresh  de- 
light, and  the  otherwise  natural  tend- 
ency of  old  age,  to  depression  and 
stagnation,  was  prevented.  Instead 
of  regrets,  dissatisfaction,  cynicism  and 
misanthropy,  a  genuine  enthusiasm 
for  humanity  naturally  developed,  and 


106  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

a  grandly  philanthropic  spirit  took 
possession  of  the  mind  and  heart — a 
spirit  that  not  only  keeps  one  active 
and  sweet  for  this  world,  but  fits  one 
for  whatever  of  usefulness  and  glorious 
experience  the  future  may  have  in  store 
for  us. 

"  The  decline  of  virility,  whether  in 
male  or  female,  should  not  be  accom- 
panied by  a  corresponding  decline  in 
general  health,  efficiency,  or  happi- 
ness." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FUNCTIONAL   DISORDERS. 

Desire  not  to  Alarm  or  Depress  the  Reader. — 
Many  Infirmities  Avoided  by  Intelligence. — 
Relation  of  Moderation  to  Disorders  of  Later 
Life. — Physical  and  Mental  Vigor  for  Later 
Years. — Why  Women  are  Less  Subject  to  In- 
firmities and  Live  Longer  than  Men. — Subcon- 
scious Mind  More  Regnant  in  Woman. — Phys- 
ical Infirmities  Which  are  Due  to  Various  and 
Dissimilar  Causes. — Insanity  in  Men. — Genito- 
urinary Diseases. — Relation  to  Venereal  Dis- 
eases.— Seeking  Competent  and  Reliable  Med- 
ical Counsel. 

In  writing  to  men  of  middle  life 
concerning  the  diseases  and  disordered 
functions  which  are  liable  to  occur  in 
the  later  years  of  life,  we  bring  our- 
selves to  our  task  with  a  sense  of 
needed  caution.  We  recognize  that 
among  our  readers  there  are  likely  to 
be  a  large  number  of  that  class  whose 
attention  cannot  be  directed  to  the 
symptoms  of  various  diseases  without 

107 


108  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

imagining  that  they  are  themselves 
possessed  of  the  entire  catalogue.  It 
is  to  this  large  class  that  the  patent 
medicine  man  appeals  by  an  array  of 
symptoms  to  which  his  readers  respond 
with  an  assurance  that  they  are  them- 
selves afflicted  with  those  very  ail- 
ments and  consequently  need  the  reme- 
dies which  it  is  asserted  will  be  sure  to 
bring:  relief  and  cure.  It  is  much 
better  that  the  minds  of  such  people 
should  not  dwell  upon  diseases  which 
they  are  likely  to  imagine  they  already 
possess,  or  are  sure  that  they  will  have 
before  twelve  months  roll  round.  With 
such  people  it  were  perhaps  better  that 
their  attention  should  not  be  called  to 
the  diseases  upon  which  their  minds 
are  sure  to  dwell  with  injurious  ef- 
fects. 

We  desire  rather  to  write  to  that 
class  of  thoughtful  individuals  who 
look  calmly  and  deliberately  at  the 
possibilities  of  the  future,  and  who 
with  wise  forethought  and  resolute 
will  bring  themselves  to  the  determina- 
tion that   they  will  by  right  living, 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  109 

judicious  diet,  regular  exercise,  and 
proper  self-restraint  avoid  those  in- 
firmities which  the  future  years  are 
likely  to  bring  to  other  men  of  their 
class.  We  write  for  those,  who,  being 
forewarned  will  be  forearmed  for  the 
victories  which  they  are  sure  to  gain 
over  the  infirmities  which  others  who 
abide  in  ignorance  must  suffer. 

While  it  would  be  wrong  for  us  to 
abate  the  force  of  what  we  have  said 
in  the  preceding  chapters  concerning 
the  importance  of  moderation  and  tem- 
perance in  all  things,  and  concerning 
the  modification  of  the  physical  life  of 
man  which  usually  takes  place  at  about 
forty-five  or  fifty  years  of  age,  yet 
there  is  no  adequate  reason  why  a 
man  of  fifty  years  of  age  may  not  look 
forward  to  twenty  or  thirty  years  of 
splendid  physical  vigor  and  large  use- 
fulness in  life  if  he  will  intelligently 
acquaint  himself  with  his  modified  en- 
vironment and  adapt  himself  to  his 
new  physical  requirements. 

When  we  consider  the  more  feeble 
frame  of   woman,  her  more   delicate 


110  MAN   OF   FORTY- FIVE. 

nervous  organization,  and  the  many 
affections  and  weaknesses  peculiar  to 
her,  we  might  naturally  expect  that 
she  would  be  more  subject  to  sickness 
and  be  likely  to  die  earlier  than  her 
stronger  consort.  Such,  however,  is 
not  always  the  case.  As  a  rule  women 
suffer  less  from  disease,  and  their 
average  duration  of  life  is  greater  than 
that  of  men.  This  larger  mortality  of 
man  over  woman  might  be  measurably 
accounted  for  because  of  the  large 
number  of  men  slain  in  war,  killed  in 
the  mines  and  upon  railroads,  the 
awful  ravages  of  the  intoxicating  cup, 
the  exhaustions  which  follow  sexual 
excess,  the  excitements  which  attend 
political  life,  and  the  great  nervous 
and  mental  strains  attendant  upon  the 
conduct  of  commercial  risks.  The  de- 
mands and  risks  of  maternity  do  not 
perchance  equal  these  perils  to  which 
men  are  exposed.  But  there  is  another 
and  better  explanation  to  be  afforded. 
While  the  nervous  organization  of 
woman  possibly  makes  it  necessary  for 
her  to  suffer  more  acutely,  yet  it  en- 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  Ill 

ables  her  to  react  and  recuperate  more 
speedily  when  her  physical  powers 
have  been  overtaxed  by  duty  or  de- 
pleted by  disease. 

The  activities  and  functions  of  the 
body  are  under  the  control  of  either 
the  conscious  or  the  subconscious 
mind,  or  what  are  sometimes  called 
voluntary  and  involuntary  movements 
of  the  body.  We  walk,  we  eat,  we 
labor  or  rest  in  harmony  with  the 
decisions  of  the  will.  Many  of  the 
offices  and  functions  of  the  body  are 
called  into  exercise  by  our  own  voli- 
tion. There  are  other  activities  of  the 
body  which  are  not  under  the  control 
of  the  will — the  heart  beats  and  the 
lungs  breathe,  both  when  we  are  asleep 
and  when  we  are  awake,  whether  we 
are  conscious  or  unconscious  of  their 
action.  The  same  is  true  with  many 
of  the  physical  functions  and  activities. 

In  man,  with  his  stronger  will  and  his 
greater  mental  grasp  and  grip  there  is 
danger,  especially  with  the  more  intel- 
lectual and  brainy,  of  having  the  will 
interfere   measurably   with  these  sub- 


112  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

conscious  or  involuntary  activities  of 
the  body. 

"With  woman  the  reverse  is  the  case. 
In  her  the  subconscious  predominates. 
"Whether  sick  or  well  the  involuntary 
movements  of  all  the  important  vital 
centres  carry  on  their  work  with 
greater  regularity  because  of  less  in- 
terference from  the  conscious  and  reso- 
lute will.  In  man  when  attacked  by 
sickness  the  subconscious  forces  which 
tend  speedily  to  restore  him  are  likely 
to  be  interfered  with  and  their  work 
hindered.  In  woman,  when  attacked 
by  sickness,  the  subconscious  mind 
dominates,  the  involuntary  offices  are 
not  interfered  with,  and  the  restora- 
tion is  more  speedy  and  complete. 

These  explanations  will  account  in  a 
great  measure  for  the  disparity  which 
exists  between  men  and  women  in  their 
efforts  to  resist  disease  and  to  with- 
stand physical  dissolution. 

As  we  have  already  said,  it  is  not 
our  purpose  to  dwell  at  length  upon 
the  infirmities  and  diseases  which  are 
more  likely  to  come  at  middle  life  and 


31  AN    OF  FORTY-FIVE.  113 

beyond  than  earlier  to  those  whose 
physical  inheritance  or  acquired  weak- 
ness does  not  enable  them  to  withstand 
their  attacks.  We  would  advise  all 
who  suffer  from  gout,  rheumatism, 
vertigo,  apoplexy,  piles  and  other 
physical  ailments  more  common  at 
this  period  of  life,  to  consult  the  best 
local  medical  skill,  rather  than  to  de- 
pend upon  diagnosing  their  own  case, 
and  selecting  their  own  remedies,  and 
not  to  submit  themselves  to  the  imposi- 
tions, extortions  and  injuries  which  so 
many  constantly  suffer  at  the  hands  of 
quacks  and  impostors. 

There  are,  of  course,  instances  in 
which  some  of  these  diseases  associate 
themselves  closely  with  excessive  ven- 
ery  and  come  as  the  natural  result  of 
venereal  diseases,  but  this  is  by  no 
means  the  case  with  all  of  them. 
"While  paralysis  is  possible  to  almost 
any  man  who  has  passed  beyond  middle 
life,  yet  it  almost  never  attacks  a  man 
under  fift}r,  unless  he  has  previously 
suffered  from  syphilis,  and  where  this 
has  been  the  case  the  paralysis  is  more 

8 


114  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

likely  to  be  the  result  of  a  diseased 
thickening  of  the  skull  and  a  pressure 
upon  the  brain,  than  of  the  rupture  of 
a  blood  vessel  in  the  brain,  which  is 
the  ordinary  cause  of  apoplexy.  Apo- 
plexy, if  it  does  come  to  a  man  who 
has  never  had  syphilis,  is  not  likely  to 
come  until  late  in  life ;  while  the  form 
of  paralysis  which  comes  as  the  result 
of  syphilis  may  attack  its  victim  when 
he  is  yet  a  young  man. 

While  it  might  not  be  easy  to  ex- 
plain how  these  signs  of  advancing 
decrepitude  stand  related  to  the  modi- 
fications and  changes  which  take  place 
in  the  sexual  nature  at  middle  life,  yet 
they  are  so  related  that  they  are  much 
more  liable  to  follow  after,  than  to 
precede  that  change.  It  is  therefore 
important  that  the  virile  powers  should 
be  preserved  in  health  and  vigor,  in 
order  that  the  signs  of  advancing  years 
may  be  long  postponed.  It  is,  however, 
unsafe  to  suppose  that  strict  continence 
alone  will  always  secure  immunity  in 
later  life  from  all  infirmity  and  dis- 
ease.    This  result  can  best  be  secured, 


MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  115 

not  simply  by  giving  attention  to  sex- 
ual moderation,  but  also  by  large 
judiciousness  and  temperance  in  all 
things.  Attention  must  be  given  to 
the  food,  the  sleep,  the  character  and 
the  amount  of  physical  and  mental 
effort,  and  also  to  diversions  and  rec- 
reations. 

In  our  examination  of  books  upon 
the  subject  of  the  reproductive  life,  we 
have  oftentimes  noted  a  tendency  to 
ascribe  an  undue  measure  of  these 
physical  infirmities  to  sexual  causes. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  many 
suffer  from  sexual  excess,  and  as  the 
result  of  venereal  diseases  ;  but  it  must 
also  be  remembered  that  a  man  may 
lead  a  pure,  continent  and  correct  life 
and  yet  suffer  many  of  the  ills  which 
flesh  is  heir  to,  simply  because  he  fails 
properly  to  guard  the  questions  of 
diet,  takes  no  exercise,  seldom  or 
never  bathes,  while  at  the  same  time 
he  is  perchance  an  excessive  user  of 
tea,  coffee,  tobacco,  or  liquors;  or  he 
may  be  guilty  of  none  of  these,  but 
simply  fail   at  suitable  times  to  cast 


116  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

out  of  the  body  the  worn-out  and 
waste  material  which  is  permitted  to 
accumulate  in  the  bowels  and  large 
intestines.  The  man  who  would  guard 
against  robbers,  does  well,  not  simply 
to  lock  the  front  door,  but  to  safeguard 
every  door  and  window  in  the  house ; 
and  the  man  who  desires  to  retain  his 
virile  power,  does  well,  not  only  to 
guard  his  sexual  relation,  but  to  look 
carefully  after  all  the  departments  of 
his  physical  needs. 

Men  of  middle  life  and  beyond  whose 
heart's  action  is  impaired  need  to  be 
warned  against  all  forms  of  sudden 
exertion  or  strong  emotion,  which  may 
endanger  their  life.  Hurrying  to  the 
train,  running  after  a  street  car,  going 
too  rapidly  upstairs,  and  other  forms 
of  sudden  and  excessive  physical  effort 
should  be  carefully  guarded  against. 
It  is  necessary  also  to  say  that  such 
men  are  also  more  exposed  to  death 
because  of  undue  sexual  excitement 
attendant  upon  the  act  of  coition. 
Such  an  act  is  particularly  dangerous 
after  a  period  of  prolonged  separation 


MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  117 

from  his  wife,  upon  entering  a  second 
marriage,  or  under  any  other  circum- 
stances where  the  conditions  are  such 
as  to  produce  more  than  usually  strong 
sexual  emotion. 

With  women  the  tendency  to  in- 
sanity is  greater  prior  to  middle  life, 
while  with  men,  the  reverse  is  the 
case.  This  may  be  due  to  depleted 
physical  powers,  or  to  great  mental 
anxiety  in  those  years  when  strength 
and  hope  so  often  fail  because  of  family 
and  business  anxieties  and  cares.  In 
some  instances  this  is  due  to  mental 
depressions  which  come  as  the  result 
of  sexual  excesses  and  venereal  dis- 
eases, and  in  some  instances  to  the  ef- 
fects of  mental  depression  which  some- 
times attend  aggravated  forms  of  an 
enlarged  prostate  gland.  The  cause 
for  this  latter  form  of  mental  trouble 
will  appear  in  a  later  paragraph. 

At,  and  after,  the  period  of  middle 
life  there  are  various  forms  of  genito- 
urinary diseases  which  require  the 
skilful  attention  of  the  specialist.  This 
is  true  particularly  with  men  who  have 


118  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

suffered  in  earlier  life  from  gonorrhea, 
or  what  is  commonly  called  the  clap. 
Men,  who  in  early  life  may  have  re- 
garded this  disease  as  of  trifling  mo- 
ment, often  awaken  to  the  realization 
of  a  very  different  fact  when  they 
reach  middle  life.  Years  ago  physi- 
cians had  not  studied  this  disease  in  its 
subsequent  effects  both  upon  the  man 
and  upon  his  innocent  and  unsuspect- 
ing wife,  with  sufficient  carefulness  to 
have  discovered  but  a  fraction  of  its 
later  and  awful  consequences.  It  is 
now  found  that  the  germs  of  gonor- 
rhea may  permeate  into  almost  any 
portion  of  the  body,  and  propagate 
with  awful  destructiveness  wherever 
they  find  a  congenial  soil.  Its  effects 
are  not  simply  local,  nor  is  stricture  its 
only  terrible  bequest,  but  ulcers  may 
form  in  the  kidneys  and  various  other 
portions  of  the  body.  Where  these  re- 
sults are  escaped  at  the  time,  nature 
may  still  be  holding  in  reserve  terrible 
scourges  with  which  to  punish  the 
guilty  when  they  arrive  at  middle 
life.  " 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  119 

When  talking  with  a  publisher  upon 
this  subject  some  months  ago  he  said 
that  the  examination  of  the  manu- 
scripts and  proof-sheets  of  medical 
works  had  so  impressed  his  mind  with 
the  consequences  which  were  likely  to 
follow  in  middle  life  as  the  result 
of  gonorrhea  contracted  in  the  earlier 
years  that  he  was  constantly  in  mental 
dread  of  what  the  future  possibly  had 
in  store  for  him. 

A  specialist  connected  with  one  of 
the  best  medical  colleges  in  this 
country,  recently  said  to  the  writer, 
that  if  he  were  to  find  that  he  had  con- 
tracted gonorrhea,  knowing  its  terrible 
consequences  as  he  did,  he  would  be 
frightened  half  to  death. 

One  of  the  most  eminent  surgeons  in 
this  county  in  a  conversation  with  the 
writer  upon  the  same  subject  said, 
knowing  what  he  did  about  the  two 
diseases,  gonorrhea  and  s}rphilis,  if  he 
were  required  to  choose  between  the 
two,  recognizing  the  effects  which  are 
likely  to  follow  gonorrhea  in  the  after 
years,  he   did   not  know  but  that  he 


120  MAN   OF   FOETY-FIVE. 

would  choose  syphilis  as  the  less  of  the 
two  great  evils. 

Later  medical  authority  is  every- 
where agreed  that  many  of  the  destruc- 
tive influences  which  despoil  young 
wives  of  their  bloom,  converting  the 
strong,  healthy  and  vigorous  into  con- 
firmed physical  wrecks,  rendering  them 
incapable  of  motherhood,  inflaming  the 
mucous  coating  of  the  vagina  and  the 
womb,  diseasing  the  fallopian  tubes 
and  oftentimes  rendering  ovariotomy, 
or  the  removal  of  the  ovaries,  necessary, 
— not  simply  one,  but  all  of  these  not 
only  may,  but  oftentimes  do  come  to 
unsuspecting  wives  as  the  result  of 
gonorrhea  contracted  by  their  hus- 
bands either  before  or  after  marriage, 
and  subsequently  communicated  to 
their  wives. 

"We  have  named  these  facts  here,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  adding  mental  tor- 
ture to  physical  suffering,  but  in  order 
that  we  might  effectively  enjoin  upon 
men  who  come  into  possession  of  this 
knowledge  the  importance  of  using 
their  personal  influence  to  disabuse  the 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  121 

minds  of  young  men  of  the  false  ideas 
which  they  have  with  regard  to  the  in- 
nocent nature  of  what  all  intelligent 
physicians  have  now  come  to  regard  as 
one  of  the  most  terrible  diseases  to 
which  mankind  is  exposed. 

It  is  not  well  that  the  mind  should 
be  filled  with  apprehensions  with  re- 
gard to  diseases  and  maladies  which 
may  never  come.  Indeed,  worry  itself 
may  bring  on  some  of  the  very  dis- 
eases which  the  person  is  anxious  to 
escape.  Should  gravel  or  stone  in  the 
bladder,  disease  of  the  kidneys,  swell- 
ing of  the  glandular  structure,  or  diffi- 
culty in  relieving  the  bladder  make 
their  appearance,  no  valuable  time 
should  be  lost  in  consulting  a  competent 
and  reliable  physician. 

The  treatment  of  the  subject  of  hy- 
pertrophy or  enlarged  prostate  is  re- 
served for  a  special  chapter,  but  before 
leaving  the  subject  of  functional  dis- 
orders we  should  say  something  with 
regard  to  that  abnormal  class  of  per- 
sons, who  so  often  receive  execration 
when  they  deserve  consideration  from 


122  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

their  fellow-men,  and  from  the  profes- 
sion, medical  or  surgical,  sympathy  and 
help.  Doctor  Acton  in  writing  of 
"  functional  disorders  in  persons  who 
know  the  consequences  of  sexual  ex- 
cesses but  cannot  control  their  pas- 
sions,"  says  :  "  This  is  a  class  of  per- 
sons the  consulting  surgeon  occasionally 
meets  with,  who  are  deserving  of  great 
sympathy.  Their  passions  depend  too 
frequently  on  a  state  of  excitement 
over  which  they  themselves  have  no 
control,  although  its  origin  may  be 
traced  to  their  own  excesses.  These 
patients  come  to  ask  our  assistance, 
not  with  any  object  of  obtaining 
power,  but  because  they  suffer  from 
urgent  desire,  which  a  careful  examina- 
tion of  the  case  often  convinces  us  is 
fictitious,  and  dependent  upon  some 
irritation  going  on  in  one  part  or  other 
of  the  canal.  In  some  persons,  a  full 
bladder  will  occasion  it ;  in  others,  irri- 
tation about  the  rectum,  preceding  from 
worms  or  hemorrhoids  ;  in  others,  again, 
acidity  of  urine  will  induce  a  morbid 
craving  that  is  often  most  distressing 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  123 

to  the  sufferer.  Frequently  the  affec- 
tion depends  upon  neuralgia  of  the 
bladder,  or  stone  in  that  viscus.  In 
other  instances,  I  have  seen  reason  to 
attribute  it  to  some  affection  of  the 
skin  covering  the  generative  organs, 
causing  local  excitement.  It  is  all 
very  well  to  desire  such  patients  to  re- 
sist these  morbid  desires,  but  until  ap- 
propriate local  treatment  is  prescribed, 
there  can  be  little  hope  of  amendment. 
Some  few  think  that  this  unnatural 
excitement  is  healthy.  They  pride 
themselves  upon  it,  appear  astonished 
at  the  surgeon  wishing  to  remove  the 
cause,  and  cannot  comprehend  that 
their  constitution  has  been  much  re- 
duced by  the  fatigue  which  the  organs 
have  undergone.  Ultimately,  for  the 
most  part,  common  sense  triumphs, 
and  they  feel  intensely  grateful  for  the 
relief  they  obtained." 


CHAPTER  X. 

ENLARGEMENT   OF   THE   PEOSTATE. 

General  Prevalence  Among  Older  Men. — How  It 
Manifests  Itself. — Hesitation  in  Beginning  to 
Void  the  Bladder. — Reduced  Force  of  Stream. — 
Location  and  Function  or  Office  of  the  Pros- 
tate.— Conditions  Which  Attend  Its  Enlarge- 
ment.— Relation  of  the  Prostate  Gland  to  Men- 
tal Trouble. — Cause  of  Enlargement. — Irritation 
of  the  Bladder. — The  Senior  Doctor  Gross 
Quoted. — Precautionary  Measures. — The  Au- 
thor's Experience  and  Method  by  Which  He 
Secured  a  Gratifying  Measure  of  Relief. 

There  is  one  functional  disorder,  so 
general  among  men  of  middle  life,  that 
all  men  should  have  an  intelligent 
understanding  of  its  nature,  and  also 
of  its  cause.  The  affection  to  which 
we  refer  is  known  as  "  enlargement  of 
the  prostate  gland."  The  prevalence 
of  hypertrophied  or  enlarged  prostate 
may  be  judged  by  any  person  who 
frequents  public  urinals.     In  most  in- 

125 


126  3IAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

stances  it  will  be  found  that  men  of 
middle  life  experience  some  hesitation 
in  beginning  the  voiding  or  emptying 
of  the  bladder.  Where  this  is  not  the 
case,  it  will  nevertheless  be  generally 
found  that  the  stream  which  is  thrown 
lacks  considerably  in  force.  These 
simple  indications  are  easily  observed 
by  those  who  have  the  intelligence  to 
note  the  facts. 

Doctor  Kellogg  in  writing  upon  this 
subject  says,  "  Many  persons  have  a 
considerable  degree  of  enlargement  of 
the  prostate  without  being  aware  of 
the  fact,  the  increase  in  size  being  so 
gradual  that  it  is  not  observed  until  so 
great  a  degree  of  obstruction  to  the 
passage  of  urine  is  produced  as  to  re- 
quire a  considerable  degree  of  volun- 
tary expulsive  force.  The  size  of  the 
stream  is  not  usually  lessened,  but  the 
force  is  greatly  diminished.  The  pa- 
tient urinates  with  much  greater  fre- 
quency than  usual,  and  as  the  disease 
advances,  considerable  irritability  and 
discomfort  in  the  rectum  is  occasioned 
by  the  frequent  and  violent  straining 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  127 

effort  required  to  evacuate  the  bladder. 
After  a  time,  the  obstruction  becomes 
so  great  that  the  bladder  cannot  be 
completely  evacuated  by  any  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  patient.  When  it  be- 
comes greatly  distended,  a  small 
quantity  of  urine  may  be  forced  out 
by  violent  efforts,  and  during  sleep  a 
sort  of  overflow  occurs,  which  may  be 
the  first  symptom  to  which  the  pa- 
tient's attention  is  seriously  directed. 
The  retained  urine  decomposes,  becom- 
ing alkaline,  irritating  the  mucous 
membrane,  and  setting  up  a  catarrh  or 
inflammation  of  the  bladder  and  a 
great  variety  of  attendant  disorders 
and  inconveniences  which,  if  neglected, 
may  lead  to  fatal  results.  We  have 
frequently  met  cases  of  this  kind  in 
which  the  bladder  contained  almost 
incredible  quantities  of  urine  which 
had  probably  been  retained  for  weeks. 
In  some  cases,  possibly  the  bladder 
had  not  been  fully  emptied  for 
months." 

Now  it  would  be  misleading  to  con- 
clude that  any  large  proportion  of  men 


128  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

of  middle  life  and  beyond  experience 
all  that  is  described  in  the  preceding 
paragraph.  Many  men  go  well  on- 
ward into  the  advanced  years  of  life 
without  experiencing  any  serious  in- 
convenience from  the  enlargement  of 
the  prostate  gland.  It  is  stated,  how- 
ever, that  fully  one-third  of  the  men 
who  have  attained  fifty  years  have 
more  or  less  enlargement  of  the  pros- 
tate. 

As  this  department  of  our  subject  is 
of  such  universal  interest  we  may 
properly  be  expected  to  acquaint  the 
reader  with  its  location,  its  office  and 
the  conditions  which  attend  its  hyper- 
trophy or  enlargement. 

The  prostate  gland  is  situated  just 
before  the  neck  of  the  bladder  in  males 
and  surrounds  the  beginning  of  the 
urethra,  the  duct  which  leads  the 
urine  from  the  bladder  into  the  outer 
world.  It  is  situated  on  the  under  and 
posterior  part  of  the  neck  of  the 
bladder,  so  as  to  surround  the  lower 
side  of  the  urethra.  During  the  repro- 
ductive  years   it  is  the  office  of  the 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  129 

prostate  gland  to  secrete  that  fluid 
which  imparts  life  to  the  spermatozoa, 
or  germs,  transmitted  by  the  male  in 
the  act  of  coition. 

"Why  the  enlargement  of  the  pros- 
tate gland  should  ever  result  in  men- 
tal trouble  will  be  readily  understood 
when  the  nature  of  its  office  is  com- 
prehended. In  order  that  it  may  do 
its  work  efficiently,  it  is  necessary  to 
be  connected  with  the  outer  world 
by  nerve  centres  located  in  almost 
every  part  of  the  body.  It  is  well 
known  that  sexual  desire  is  begotten 
not  only  by  what  one  sees,  or  by  the 
word  spoken  into  the  ear,  but  by  the 
sense  of  smell  and  of  feeling  as  well. 
If  the  reproductive  organs  were  not 
thus  intimately  connected  with  all  of 
the  senses,  they  would  not  properly 
respond  to  the  divine  intention  in  the 
act  of  transmitting  life.  It  is  because 
of  this  nervous  relationship  to  the 
brain  and  all  the  nerve  centres  that 
solitary  vice  and  sexual  excesses,  as 
well  as  enlarged  prostate  or  any  dis- 
order  of   the  reproductive   organs   is 

9 


130  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

liable  to  be  complicated  with  nervous 
results,  which,  in  extreme  cases,  may 
even  produce  insanity. 

"When  the  male  passes  the  period  of 
reproductive  energy  and  enters  the 
period  of  larger  sexual  repose,  the 
prostate  generally  loses  its  function  and 
hypertrophy  or  enlargement,  at  least 
to  some  extent,  generally  ensues.  In 
most  instances  no  inconvenience  is  ex- 
perienced beyond  that  of  a  slight  delay 
in  beginning  the  voiding  of  the  bladder 
and  the  attendant  diminished  force  of 
the  stream. 

The  instances,  however,  are  numer- 
ous in  which  the  pressure  of  the  pros- 
tate upon  the  urethra  produces,  not 
only  the  two  effects  named  in  the  pre- 
ceding paragraph,  but  causes  that  the 
bladder  cannot  be  completely  emptied 
when  urinating.  The  amount  of  urine 
retained  in  the  bladder  may  not  be 
more  than  a  few  tablespoonfuls ;  but  it 
being  the  last,  this  remnant  is  likely  to 
contain  some  sediment,  and  the  decom- 
position, which  is  likely  to  follow,  is 
liable  to  set  up  an  irritation  at  the  neck 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  131 

of  the  bladder.  This  local  irritation  is 
usually  first  noted  because  of  an  irri- 
tability of  the  bladder  which  occasions 
discomfort  at  night,  gives  a  sense  of 
fullness  and  causes  the  patient  to 
desire  to  empty  the  bladder  during 
the  hours  formerly  given  to  uninter- 
rupted sleep.  Where  these  occasions 
are  not  repeated  too  frequently  during 
the  night,  little  attention  is  given  to 
the  inconvenience,  and  the  matter  is 
likely  to  be  passed  by  without  any 
thoughtful  consideration.  If  a  slight 
cold  should  settle  in  these  parts,  an  ina- 
bility to  retain  the  urine  for  any  con- 
siderable time  may  be  experienced,  and 
after  each  urination  water  may  continue 
to  drip  from  the  urethra,  and  such  a 
condition  is  likely  to  call  the  attention 
of  the  patient  to  the  importance  of  con- 
sulting a  physician,  and  the  adoption  of 
such  measures  as  are  calculated  to  ar- 
rest the  further  progress  of  the  disease 
for  months  or  even  years. 

According  to  the  senior  Professor 
Gross,  formerlv  of  the  Jefferson  Medical 
College,  the  causes  which  result  in  en- 


132  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

largement  of  the  prostate  "  act  in  a 
slow  and  permanent  manner.  "What- 
ever, therefore,  has  a  tendency  to  keep 
up  habitual  engorgement  in  the  organ, 
may  be  considered  as  being  capable  of 
producing  the  affection.  Augmented 
action  necessarily  occasions  an  aug- 
mented afflux  of  blood  and  a  corre- 
sponding increase  of  nutrition.  Dimin- 
ished action  has  a  reversed  effect. 
Amongst  the  more  frequently  enumer- 
ated causes  of  the  malady  are  excessive 
venery,  stricture  of  the  urethra,  disease 
of  the  bladder,  horseback  exercise,  gon- 
orrhea, and  the  employment  of  stimu- 
lating diuretics;  but,  in  general,  the 
influence  of  these  causes  is  apparent 
rather  than  real.  They  are,  no  doubt, 
all  capable  of  inducing  the  disease; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally 
certain  that  they  are  often  accused 
when  they  are  entirely  innocent.  Some 
of  the  very  worst  cases  of  hypertrophy 
of  the  prostate  occur  in  old  men  who 
have  led  the  chastest  of  lives,  who  have 
not  ridden  on  horseback  for  forty  or 
fifty  years,  and  who  have  never  had 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  133 

the  slightest  disease  of  any  kind  of  the 
urethra." 

In  some  cases  there  is  considerable 
sensation  and  burning  at  the  time  the 
urine  is  voided,  in  others  the  bowels 
may  be  emptied  with  inconvenience  or 
pain,  and  the  lower  bowel  never  feel 
completely  emptied  even  after  the  most 
thorough  purgation.  In  advanced 
chronic  cases,  or  in  acute  attacks,  there 
may  be  uneasiness  or  even  pain  in  sit- 
ting because  of  the  pressure  of  the 
parts  which  adjoin  the  prostate,  which 
is  situated  only  about  an  inch  and  a 
half  or  two  inches  from  the  anus. 
"Where  such  conditions  exist,  sexual  in- 
tercourse, stimulating  foods,  tea,  coffee, 
tobacco,  liquor  and  vinegar,  and  even 
tarts  and  acids  should  be  avoided,  to- 
gether with  all  griping  purgatives. 
Cushioned  chairs  should  not  be  used  as 
they  cause  a  heating  of  the  parts,  and 
are  consequently  injurious.  Physicians 
warn  their  patients  against  horse- 
back riding,  and  in  many  instances 
prohibit  bicycling,  especially  where 
the   saddle  is   such   as   to    cause   the 


134  31  AN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

slightest  pressure  upon  the  anus  and 
perineum. 

In  the  catalogue  of  injurious  influ- 
ences, medical  books  also  enumerate 
the  dangers  of  persons  who  spend  hours 
daily  in  air  impregnated  with  the  odor 
of  tobacco,  or  where  they  inhale  the 
odors  of  spirituous  liquors.  In  extreme 
cases  rest  in  a  recumbent  position  is  of 
great  service,  but  the  patient  should 
be  encouraged  to  moderate  exercise  in 
the  open  air  during  pleasant  weather. 

"We  have  known  quacks  and  charla- 
tans to  insinuate  that  an  enlarged  pros- 
tate comes  solely  as  a  result  of  excess- 
ive coition,  and  to  promise  complete 
recovery  to  those  who  abstain  totally 
from  the  sexual  relation  and  take  the 
expensive  drugs  which  they  prescribe. 
Such  insinuations  and  pretences  are 
thoroughly  unreliable.  The  sexual  re- 
lation should  of  course  be  carefully 
guarded ;  and  what  we  have  to  say  in 
addition  upon  this  subject  will  appear  in 
a  subsequent  chapter  upon  the  marriage 
of  men  of  middle  life  and  beyond. 

Believing  that  the  experience  of  the 


MAN   OF   FORTY- FIVE.  135 

writer  may  prove  suggestive  to 
younger  men  and  serviceable  to  men 
of  middle  life  he  is  inclined  to  in- 
troduce at  this  point  some  facts  con- 
cerning the  enlargement  of  the  pros- 
tate gland  which  he  would  otherwise 
prefer  to  omit.  Eighteen  years  ago, 
when  thirty-five  years  of  age,  the 
writer  was  among  the  first  clergymen 
in  this  country  to  adopt  the  bicycle  as 
a  means  of  recreation.  For  some  six 
years  I  rode  the  high  wheel,  usually 
devoting  the  month  of  August  to  a 
tour  of  several  hundred  miles.  The 
saddles  at  that  time,  and  for  years  af ter- 
ward,  were  unsanitary  and  injurious  in 
their  effects  because  of  the  pressure 
against  the  perineum,  and  the  conse- 
quent irritation  of  the  prostate  gland. 
As  the  riding  was  at  that  time  largely 
confined  to  young  men,  the  results  of 
the  unsanitary  saddles,  rigid  frames  and 
excessive  vibration  were  scarcely  real- 
ized even  by  the  medical  profession. 
What  these  consequences  have  been  to 
many  men,  it  required  the  later  years 
to    disclose.     After    several   years   of 


136  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

cycling,  I  discovered  that  in  the  fall  of 
the  year,  for  a  period  of  a  couple  of 
months,  there  was  a  tendency  to 
waken  at  night  for  the  purpose  of 
emptying  the  bladder.  Hy  love  of 
cycling  inclined  me  to  attribute  this 
to  the  eating  of  melons,  peaches, 
grapes  and  such  other  fruits  as  con- 
tained a  large  quantity  of  water. 
With  the  early  winter  these  conditions 
usually  passed  away  and  did  not  return 
until  the  succeeding  summer  and  fall. 
Some  six  or  eight  years  ago  I  noticed 
that  the  disturbed  tendency  at  night 
was  projected  over  most  of  the  year, 
and  gradually  increased  until  it  became 
necessary  to  empty  the  bladder,  from 
one  to  three  and  four  times  each  night. 
Two  years  ago  I  began  to  give  this  mat- 
ter medical  attention.  The  difficulty, 
however,  has  continued,  and  during  the 
past  year  I  have  seldom  passed  a  night 
without  the  necessity  of  urinating  at 
least  twice,  but  generally  three  and 
four  times,  and  occasionally  as  many  as 
six  and  seven  times. 

To  avoid  being  broken  of  my  rest 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  137 

and  the  danger  of  exposing  myself  to 
taking  cold  I  early  formed  the  habit 
of  lifting  the  receiver  into  the  bed  and 
voiding  the  bladder  while  lying  on  my 
side.  The  quantity  of  urine  passed 
was  always  small,  but  the  necessity  to 
void  it  was  imperative,  if  I  desired  to 
sleep.  "While  the  annoyance  was  al- 
ways unpleasant,  the  most  disastrous 
result  was  the  interruption  of  sleep. 
When  wearied  and  nervous,  it  was 
oftentimes  difficult  to  resume  perfect 
rest  and  sleep,  and  that  phase  of  the 
difficulty  assumed  the  greater  gravity. 

Some  months  ago  in  my  reading  I 
came  across  a  suggestion  which  I  re- 
solved to  enlarge  upon  and  experi- 
ment with.  It  was  the  flushing  and 
cleansing  of  the  rectum  by  the  injec- 
tion of  tepid  or  warm  wTater  just  before 
retiring. 

As  physicians  know,  the  prostate 
gland  rests  against  the  rectum  and  is 
separated  from  it  only  by  the  thin 
tissues  which  compose  it.  The  prostate 
rests  against  the  rectum  only  about  an 
inch  and  a  half  or  two  inches  from  the 


138  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

anus,  and  by  an  experienced  finger 
can  be  readily  felt  and  distinguished 
when  inserted  into  the  orifice  at  the 
lower  extremity  of  the  body.  It  is 
well  known  that  constipation  or  an  ac- 
cumulation of  effete  matter  in  the 
colon  and  rectum  tend  to  irritate  and 
aggravate  the  conditions  which  accom- 
pany enlargement  of  the  prostate. 

Where  constipation  is  constitutional 
or  temporary,  considerable  relief  will 
be  found  by  drinking  a  glass  or  more 
of  water  immediately  upon  rising  in  the 
morning.  This  tends  to  cleanse  the 
stomach  and  smaller  intestines  and  to 
move  the  bowels,  in  the  course  of  an 
hour.  The  medical  teaching  of  to-day 
is  to  the  effect  that  few  persons  drink  a 
sufficient  amount  of  water  to  cleanse 
properly  the  sewerage  of  the  body. 
Both  the  kidneys  and  the  bowels  are 
frequently  congested  and  impeded  in 
their  work  by  a  lack  of  sufficient  fluid 
to  flush  and  carry  out  of  the  body 
those  particles  of  effete  matter  which 
are  permitted  to  accumulate  in  the  in- 
testines,   bowels    and   bladder.     It  is 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  139 

doubtless  true  that  many  persons  suf- 
fer from  headache  and  other  ailments 
that  would  be  greatly  relieved  by 
drinking  a  greatly  increased  quantity  of 
water. 

"Where  constipation  is  persistent  or 
even  temporary  the  flushing  of  the 
colon  or  large  intestine  by  the  in- 
jection of  water  at  a  temperature  of 
from  ninety  to  one  hundred  and  two, 
using  a  fountain  syringe,  and  injecting 
the  water  while  the  body  is  in  a  re- 
cumbent position,  or  better,  lying  upon 
the  right  side  or  resting  upon  the 
knees  with  the  forehead  down  upon 
the  floor,  are  possibly  the  best  posi- 
tions to  secure  the  passage  of  the 
water  to  the  extreme  end  of  the  colon. 
Such  flushings  taken  once  or  twice  a 
week  to  relieve  temporary  need,  until 
a  better  order  can  be  established,  will 
be  found  very  serviceable.  The  influx 
of  water  should  not  be  so  rapid  as  to 
cause  discomfort  at  the  time  or  griping 
afterward. 

The  flushing  of  the  rectum,  however, 
differs  from  the  flushing  of  the  colon 


140  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

in  two  or  three  particulars.  The  flush- 
ing of  the  rectum  is  taken  in  a  sitting 
posture,  over  a  closet,  and  as  the  water 
accumulates  in  the  rectum  it  is  per- 
mitted to  pass  out  while  the  stream 
continues  to  flow  in  from  the  fountain 
syringe.  The  anus  and  the  nozzle  or 
tube  should  be  carefully  anointed  with 
cosmoline,  oil  or  castile  soap,  so  as  to 
guard  against  any  possible  injury  to 
the  tissues.  If  the  longer  tube,  gener- 
ally used  by  women  for  vaginal  flush- 
ings, is  used,  it  may  be  passed  further 
up  into  the  rectum  by  pointing  the  as- 
cending end  toward  the  back  of  the 
body  as  it  is  gradually  passed  upward, 
after  the  end  has  been  inserted  into 
the  anus,  and  the  water  begins  to  flow 
into  the  rectum. 

The  introduction  of  this  water  into 
the  rectum  accomplishes  several  im- 
portant results.  It  cleanses  the  rec- 
tum, removes  pressure  from  the  pros- 
tate, relieves  from  local  irritation,  en- 
ables the  bladder  to  be  thoroughly 
emptied  before  retiring  and  thus  pre- 
vents the  decomposition  of  urine  and 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  Ill 

irritation  in  the  bladder,  enabling  the 
patient  to  enjoy  a  night  of  greater  re- 
pose and  thus  contributes  to  a  general 
physical  improvement  and  increased  en- 
durance. 

AVhen  beginning  these  flushings  I 
made  a  careful  record  each  week  of 
the  result.  "When  I  began  I  was  uni- 
formly wakened  three  or  four  times 
each  night,  and  sometimes  oftener.  I 
abstained  from  the  use  of  all  tarts  and 
sours  except  lemonade,  and  carefully 
avoided  eve^thing  which  would  pro- 
duce a  sense  of  local  irritability.  The 
first  week  I  filled  the  two-quart  bag 
twice  with  water  and  used  the  flush- 
ings morning  and  evening.  I  immedi- 
ately found  the  local  irritation  allayed 
and  a  sense  of  increased  sexual  repose. 
During  this  first  week  I  was  not  awak- 
ened any  night  more  than  twice,  and 
two  nights  during  the  week  but  once 
each  night.  The  second  week  I  was 
away  from  home  for  three  nights, 
omitted  the  irrigation,  but  was  not 
wakened  any  night  more  than  twice. 
The  third  week  I  abandoned  the  flush- 


142  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

ings  in  the  morning,  but  continued 
them  each  night.  Five  nights  I  slept 
with  only  one  waking,  the  irritation  at 
the  neck  of  the  bladder  gradually  sub- 
sided, and  its  capacity  to  receive  and 
retain  an  increasing  quantity  of  urine 
gradually  returned.  I  drank  lemonade 
with  impunity  during  those  August 
days  without  feeling  the  slightest  in- 
jurious effects,  but  avoided  its  use  be- 
fore retiring  at  night.  The  fourth 
week  I  passed  two  successive  nights 
without  waking,  with  all  local  and 
general  physical  conditions  greatly  im- 
proved. 

The  fifth  and  sixth  weeks  I  had 
nights  in  which  I  slept  from  start  to 
finish — eight  hours — without  waking, 
and  four  of  these  nights  were  in  suc- 
cession. The  other  nights  I  awoke  but 
once,  save  one  night  after  eating  freely 
of  watermelon  in  the  morning  and  at 
noon  preceding. 

I  have  been  thus  explicit  because 
I  believe  the  suggestion  a  very  valua- 
ble one.  It  is  simple,  inexpensive,  and 
when  properly  performed  can  do  no 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  143 

possible  injury,  although  as  a  rule  I 
recommend  all  and  especially  those 
who  are  under  medical  treatment  to 
adopt  or  follow  only  what  their  physi- 
cians prescribe. 

A  specialist  in  genito-urinary  dis- 
eases, and  another  specialist  of  rectal 
diseases  both  assure  me  that  no  possible 
injury  can  result  to  any  one  from  the 
use  of  the  flushings  I  have  here  de- 
scribed. No  one  should  use  water  of 
a  temperature  below  eighty  or  above 
one  hundred  and  two,  unless  acting 
under  the  direction  of  a  physician. 

It  should  be  noted  that  when  flush- 
ing the  colon  for  the  relief  of  constipa- 
tion before  retiring,  it  is  important  to 
empty  this  organ  carefully  as  the 
water  which  is  retained  will  accumu- 
late during  the  night  in  the  bladder 
and  make  it  necessary  to  empty  that 
reservoir  more  frequently.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  the  case  when  using  only 
the  flushings  of  the  rectum.  In  the 
flushings  of  the  rectum  I  have  used 
water  from  ninety  to  one  hundred  de- 
grees with  preference  for  the  latter 


144  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

temperature,  and  have  regularly  re- 
filled the  two-quart  bag  the  second 
time  at  each  flushing. 

I  have  not  named  this  experiment 
with  the  thought  that  this  method  of 
treatment  is  wholly  new  or  has  been 
left  untried  by  physicians  on  genito- 
urinary diseases,  but  I  have  named 
them  to  show  what  was  accomplished 
by  only  a  little  attention  in  a  few 
weeks  and  all  this  after  these  aggra- 
vated conditions  had  continued  through 
a  series  of  years. 

Several  months  have  at  this  writing 
elapsed  since  this  experiment  was  made 
and  discontinued.  The  benefits  which 
were  secured  by  these  flushings  of  the 
rectum  have  proven  to  be  worth  all 
they  cost,  as  they  have  been,  not 
wholly,  but  measurably  permanent,  in 
their  results.  I  have  not  sought  to 
hold  out  the  hope  that  such  treatment 
would  result  in  a  permanent  cure,  but 
I  am  confident  that  in  many  cases 
it  will  give  a  temporary,  but  much 
appreciated  relief. 


CHAPTER  XL 

TIIE    MARRIAGE    OF    MEN   OF   MIDDLE 
LIFE 

The  Period  Ordained  by  Nature  for  Marriage. — 
Question  of  Marriage  at  Middle  Life,  a  Com- 
plex One. — Disparities  of  Age,  Culture,  Posi- 
tion, etc. — Conditions  which  Follow  where  One 
is  Young  and  the  Other  has  Passed  the  Climac- 
teric Period. — Considerate  Views  of  Doctor  Ac- 
ton.— Continuance  of  Virile  Power  in  Old  Men. 
— Diminution  of  Sexual  Inclination  and  Loss  of 
Erectile  Power. — The  Primal  Purpose  of  Mar- 
riage.— The  Right  of  Children  to  be  Well  Born. 
— Character  of  Animals  the  Product  of  Old  Sires 
and  Dams. — Physical,  Mental  and  Moral  Char- 
acter of  Children  of  Aged  Parents. — Propriety 
of  Marriages  Induced  by  Other  than  Physical 
Considerations. — Marriages  which  are  Justifi- 
able.— Dr.  Dio  Lewis'  Letter  to  Rich  Man  of 
Sixty-six  About  to  Marry  Frivolous  Girl  of 
Eighteen. — Important  Advice  of  Various  Physi- 
cians Quoted. 

The  time  best  suited  for  the  mar- 
riage of  both  men  and  women  is  when 
full  maturity  is  reached.  That  this  is 
the    time   which   is   intended   by   the 

10  145 


146  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

Creator  becomes  manifest  to  any  one 
who  studies  the  physical,  intellectual, 
moral,  social,  financial  and  other  bene- 
fits which  are  to  be  derived  from  mar- 
riage. If  natural  laws  were  not  inter- 
fered with  by  artificial  conditions,  it  is 
likely  that  nearly  all  people  would 
marry  by  that  time.  Questions  of  edu- 
cation, finance,  and  other  considera- 
tions sometimes  properly,  and  some- 
times improperly,  greatly  defer  the 
period  of  marriage.  Whatever  may 
be  gained  in  some  respects  by  defer- 
ring marriage  until  middle  life  is  ap- 
proached, the  postponement  is,  never- 
theless, in  many  particulars,  one  of  the 
greatest  real  losses  that  either  man  or 
woman  can  suffer  in  this  relation. 

It  would  be  neither  wise  nor  exact 
to  lay  down  a  universal  rule  against 
all  marriages  of  men  of  middle  life. 
There  are  instances  in  which  marriage 
at  middle  life  may  prove  a  manifest 
benefit  to  both  parties.  The  great  ob- 
jection to  be  made  to  marriages  at  this 
period,  is  the  great  disparity  of  age, 
position,   culture,   etc.,  which   usually 


31  AN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  147 

exist  in  such  cases.  Indeed,  the  large 
majority  of  cases  to  be  heartily  disap- 
proved, because  of  their  terrible  conse- 
quences, might  easily  be  classified  under 
the  head  of  disparity  of  age,  and  the 
differences  which  grow  out  of  wealth 
upon  the  one  hand,  and  poverty  upon 
the  other. 

A  considerable  disparity  of  age,  even 
where  persons  are  married  in  early  life, 
constitutes  a  very  serious  objection. 
Instances  can  everywhere  be  found  in 
which  young  men  have  married  girls 
ten  and  even  fifteen  years  their  senior, 
who  have  lived  happily  for  a  period, 
but  when  the  climacteric  period  or 
change  of  life  came  to  the  wife,  such 
differences  and  discords  arose  as  led 
to  great  unhappiness,  and  in  some  in- 
stances to  injustice  and  even  to  suicide 
or  murder.  Where  the  reverse  is  the 
case  and  the  man  is  ten  or  fifteen  years 
the  senior  of  his  wife,  when  the  period 
of  sexual  repose  has  come  to  him  and 
he  has  found  himself  physically  unable 
to  respond  without  weakness  and  dis- 
comfort to  demands  which  previously 


148  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

afforded  him  pleasure,  that  where  either 
one  or  both  parties  were  not  intelligent 
with  regard  to  the  cause  of  such  phys- 
ical changes,  embarrassment  and  dejec- 
tion have  been  followed  by  conditions 
which  preyed  upon  the  mind,  and  have 
not  unfrequently  led  even  to  suicide. 

This  matter  of  disparity  of  age  is  a 
very  serious  consideration,  even  to 
those  who  marry  in  the  earlier  periods 
of  life.  Intelligence  with  regard  to 
the  actual  conditions  which  are  certain 
to  ensue,  and  great  consideration  and 
tenderness  on  the  part  of  the  younger 
for  the  older  partner  are  the  only  req- 
uisites which  can  ever  avert  the  un- 
happiness  and  misery  which  are  other- 
wise inseparable  from  ill-mating  be- 
cause of  disparity  of  age. 

Dr.  William  Acton  sounds  clear 
notes  of  warnings  upon  these  subjects. 
He  does  not  set  himself  wholly  against 
the  marriage  of  men  of  middle  life,  but 
after  insisting  upon  the  importance  of 
being  equally  yoked  together  in  mat- 
ters of  age,  position,  purposes  and 
tastes,  he  has  the  following  to  say  in 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  149 

reference  to  instances  which  are  per- 
missible and  are  to  be  encouraged. 
"  I  must  not  be  supposed  to  set  m}'  face 
against  every  elderly  man  marrying  if 
they  will,  but  let  them  select  a  suitable 
companion.  What  I  object  to  is  De- 
cember allying  itself  with  May.  Daily 
do  I  give  my  sanction  to  a  man  ad- 
vanced in  life  (but  left  on  the  strand, 
without  relations  or  friends)  marrying 
if  he  has  the  wish,  and  his  health  is 
good,  and  he  can  select  a  lady  of  suit- 
able age.  My  opinion  is,  that  if  such 
a  man  avoids  marital  excesses,  the  best 
thing  he  can  do  with  a  view  of  pro- 
longing life  is  to  marry.  Certainly  I 
can  say  that  the  results  I  have  wit- 
nessed have  borne  out  the  correctness 
of  the  advice  I  have  given ;  marriage, 
even  late  in  life,  has  conduced,  in 
numerous  instances  that  have  come 
under  my  observation,  to  the  happiness 
and  longevity  of  many  elderly  people. 
It  is  only  against  injudicious  and  ill 
assorted  marriages  and  consequent  in- 
jurious excesses  that  I  set  my  face. 
"  Subsequent  and  more  extensive  ex- 


150  3IAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

perience,  however,  has  assured  me, 
that,  in  the  present  state  of  civilization, 
there  are  many  cases  in  which  a  man 
may  marry  late  in  life  with  great  ad- 
vantage. I  now  submit  a  patient  who 
desires  to  marry  late  in  life  to  a  close 
examination.  If  I  find  him  a  hale  per- 
son with  a  sound  constitution,  I  see  no 
objection  to  his  settling,  provided  al- 
ways he  selects  a  suitable  person  as  re- 
gards age,  position,  etc.  That  which 
alone  I  object  to,  in  consideration  of 
his  future  health  and  happiness  is  his 
uniting  himself  with  a  young,  gay  or 
volatile  girl.  I  am  quite  certain  that 
marriage,  even  late  in  life,  contributes 
to  a  man's  longevity,  if  the  woman  he 
chooses  is  suitable  as  regards  age,  dis- 
position, and  temper.  The  observa- 
tions already  made  in  this  chapter  par- 
ticularly apply  here.  If  the  newly 
married  man  will  but  be  moderate  and 
commit  no  excess  of  any  kind,  I  am  an 
advocate  for  his  marriage  rather  than 
that  he  should  remain  single.  The 
reader  should  recollect  that  in  these 
cases  the  surgeon  does  not  advise  all 


3IAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  151 

elderly  people  to  marry,  but  he  sees  no 
valid  reason  why  an  attachment  al- 
ready formed  should  be  broken  off 
merely  because  a  hale  and  hearty 
bridegroom  is  advanced  in  life.  I  am 
cognizant  of  many  instances  of  persons 
who  are  now  living  very  comfortably 
and  happily,  who  married  late  in  life. 
In  these  instances  no  ill  consequences 
have  happened.  If,  however,  an 
elderly  man  is  disposed  to  marry  be- 
neath him,  or  to  contract  marriage 
with  a  young  and  worldly  woman,  I 
think  his  medical  adviser  should  do  all 
in  his  power  to  dissuade  and  warn  him 
of  the  danger  he  is  about  to  incur. 
Nevertheless,  experience  teaches  us 
that  the  advice  is  but  little  heeded.  I 
am  well  aware  that  many  cases  can  be 
cited  in  which  men  have  married  late 
in  life,  and  had  families.  Undoubted 
instances  of  virility  at  the  age  of  nearly 
one  hundred  years  are  on  record ;  but 
in  these  cases  the  general  bodily  vigor 
has  been  preserved  in  a  very  remark- 
able degree.  The  ordinary  rule  seems 
to  be,  that  sexual  power  is  not  retained 


152  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

by  the  male  to  any  considerable  extent 
after  the  age  of  sixty  or  sixty-five." 

It  -would  be  both  safe  and  thoroughly 
correct  to  say  that  instances  where 
men  have  possessed  virile  power  and 
become  parents  at  the  age  of  eighty 
and  one  hundred  years  are  not  only 
exceptional,  but  even  abnormal.  They 
are  counterparts  of  instances  in  which 
female  children  at  the  age  of  six 
and  seven  have  menstruated,  or  very 
young  male  children  been  able  to  emit 
semen.  The  man  who  calls  his  repro- 
ductive power  into  frequent  exercise 
after  passing  forty  years  of  age  is  not 
likely  to  retain  virile  power  even  until 
he  is  sixty.  These  powers  can  only  be 
preserved  by  being  safeguarded,  by 
considerateness  and  by  great  mod- 
eration. 

The  secretion  of  semen  continues  for 
a  considerable  number  of  years,  even 
after  the  testicles,  or  male  appendages 
have  considerably  atrophied,  or  dimin- 
ished in  size,  and  even  after  sexual  in- 
clination has  largely  disappeared  and 
erectile  power  been  lost.    The  secretion 


MAN   OF   FORTY- FIVE.  153 

of  semen  takes  place  in  old  men,  al- 
though very  slowly,  just  like  the  saliva, 
the  bile  and  other  fluids  of  the  body  ; 
but  when  once  the  period  of  loss  and 
decay  has  arrived,  no  man  can  be  sub- 
jected to  its  repeated  loss  without  seri- 
ous injury.  Indeed  it  is  a  good  thing 
that  nature  sounds  a  warning  by  fol- 
lowing the  reproductive  act  in  old 
men  with  a  sense  of  great  languor. 

Not  only  do  sexual  inclinations 
diminish  and  erectile  power  gradually 
disappear,  but  the  act  is  frequently 
attended  by  results  which  are  the  most 
unsatisfactory  in  their  character. 
Doctor  Acton  says :  "  several  most 
intelligent  and  observant  elderly  per- 
sons have  assured  me  that  as  they  have 
advanced  in  life  the  emission  of  semen 
has  been  attended  with  absolute  pain — 
a  sort  of  scalding  or  burning  as  the 
fluid  passes.  This  is  so  great  that  they 
dread  the  occurrence,  as  it  takes  away 
from  the  pleasure  of  the  act." 

It  is  universally  conceded  that  the 
great  primal  purpose  of  marriage  is 
the  perpetuity  of  the  human  race ;  and 


154  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

the  other  purpose,  which  is  almost 
equally  important,  the  happiness  and 
temporal  and  eternal  well-being  of  the 
two  persons  who  enter  into  the  mar- 
riage relation. 

The  period  at  which  procreation  and 
reproduction  are  most  likely  to  take 
place  is  during  the  decade  which  fol- 
lows the  marriage  of  young  persons 
who  have  just  attained  their  full  bod- 
ily maturity.  After  this  first  decade 
the  probabilities  of  conception  are 
gradually  diminished,  but  not  wholly 
removed,  until  after  the  period  of 
change  of  life  in  woman  and  of  the 
loss  of  virile  power  upon  the  part  of 
man,  when  the  woman  is  no  longer 
able  to  conceive  or  the  man  to  trans- 
mit or  beget  life. 

Every  child  born  into  the  world  has 
a  right  to  demand  of  its  parents  that 
it  shall  be  well  born — that  it  shall 
have  its  full  equipment  of  physical,  in- 
tellectual and  moral  power.  This  re- 
sult can  only  be  attained  where  both 
parents  are  possessed  of  those  qualities 
and  endowments  which  they  desire  to 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  153 

transmit.  Life  is  naturally  divided 
into  three  periods,  the  earlier  which  is 
one  of  rapid  growth  ;  this  is  followed 
by  a  period  of  balanced  existence,  after 
which  comes  the  later  years  of  loss  and 
decay.  It  will  therefore  be  readily 
seen,  that  when  the  parents  have  not 
attained  their  bodily  growth,  or  when 
they  are  themselves  subject  to  the  loss 
and  decay  attendant  upon  the  later 
years  of  life,  it  would  be  impossible  to 
beget  and  bring  forth  children  pos- 
sessed of  the  best  endowments.  It  is 
only  during  the  period  of  balanced  ex- 
istence that  parenthood  can  be  exer- 
cised and  children  born  into  the  world 
with  their  best  possible  endowments. 

In  his  book  entitled  "The  Trans- 
mission of  Life,"  Dr.  George  H. 
Napheys  says  :  "  The  physiological 
change  which  takes  place  in  the  secre- 
tion in  advanced  years  deprives  it  of 
the  power  of  transmitting  life,  and  at 
last  the  vigor  of  the  function  is  lost. 
The  spermatozoa,  which  in  manhood 
are  bodies  formed  of  a  conical  head 
and  a  long,  vibrating  extremity,  lose 


156  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

the  latter  portion  of  their  body,  and 
become  mere  rounded  cells,  without 
the  power  of  independent  motion. 
With  the  impotence  of  decrepitude, 
however,  we  have  little  to  do,  and 
as  to  its  prevention — cure,  there  is 
none." 

Dr.  Acton  says,  "  Professed  breeders 
of  animals  refuse  to  rear  the  produce 
of  old  sires  and  dams,  and  have 
learned  to  recognize  this  class  of 
young  stock  by  several  marks,  as  for 
instance  the  deeper  hollows  over  the 
eyes,  and  by  the  sunken  eye  itself. 
So  well  are  these  facts  known  to  horse- 
dealers,  that  they  refuse  to  purchase 
young  horses  presenting  these  appear- 
ances, being  convinced  that  they  will 
not  stand  work,  or  turn  out  well.  As 
far  as  my  experience  goes,  no  doubt 
can  exist  that  old  men  may  and  do 
retain  the  power  of  connection  under 
the  influence  of  certain  stimuli.  .  .  . 
Such  men  may  have  children,  but 
experience  teaches  us  that  these  in- 
fants are  difficult  to  rear;  they  are 
not  the  best  specimens  of  the  English 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  157 

race.  Too  many  are  of  a  nervous, 
irritable  frame,  their  intellectual  quali- 
ties are  not  equal  to  those  of  the  father, 
and  they  suffer  as  they  progress  in  life 
from  affections  of  the  brain  and  nervous 
system.  .  .  .  "We  are,  therefore,  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  children  of 
old  men  have  an  inferior  chance  of 
life ;  and  facts  daily  observed  confirm 
our  deductions.  Look  but  at  the 
progeny  of  men  who  marry  late  in 
life,  what  is  its  value  ?  As  far  as  I 
have  seen,  it  is  of  the  worst  kind — 
spoilt  childhood,  feeble  and  precocious 
youth,  extravagant  manhood,  early  and 
premature  death." 

Doctor  Gardner  says,  "  Children,  the 
issue  of  old  men,  are  habitually  marked 
by  a  serious  and  sad  air  spread  over 
their  countenances,  which  is  manifestly 
very  opposite  to  the  infantile  expres- 
sion which  so  delights  one  in  the  little 
children  of  the  same  age  engendered 
under  other  conditions.  As  they  grow 
up,  their  features  take  on  more  and 
more  the  senile  character,  so  much  so 
that    every  one   remarks   it,  and   the 


158  31  AN   OF   FOE TY- FIVE. 

world  regards  it  as  a  natural  thing. 
The  old  mothers  pretend  that  it  is  '  an 
old  head  on  young  shoulders.'  They 
predict  an  early  death  to  these  children, 
and  the  event  frequently  justifies  the 
horoscope.  Our  attention  has  for  many 
years  been  fixed  upon  this  point,  and 
we  can  affirm  that  the  greater  part  of 
the  offspring  of  these  connections  are 
weak,  torpid,  lymphatic,  if  not  scrofu- 
lous, and  do  not  promise  a  long  career." 

All  this  is  due  to  the  deteriorated 
condition  of  the  seminal  fluid.  The 
parent  no  longer  has  that  vitality  and 
strength  to  transmit,  which  is  essential 
in  the  production  of  healthy  and  happy 
children. 

But  the  child  that  is  born  to  a  mother 
when  she  is  approaching  the  period  of 
a  change  of  life,  or  is  begotten  by  a 
father  who  has  passed  that  period 
when  the  physical  powers  have  begun 
to  decline,  will  not  only  come  into  the 
world  defrauded  of  its  inalienable  rights 
to  a  good  inheritance  of  physical,  intel- 
lectual and  moral  endowment ;  but  will 
be  the  child  of  parents  who  have  passed 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  159 

the  flower  of  their  manhood  and  woman- 
hood, and  who  are  no  longer  in  sym- 
pathy even  with  a  healthy  child,  and 
much  less  with  one  that  is  born  weak, 
nervous  and  in  need  of  the  tenderest 
sympathies  and  considerations  possible. 
One  of  the  reasons  why  God  de- 
prives men  and  women  in  middle  life 
of  the  power  of  transmitting  and  bear- 
ing children  is  because  upon  the  parent 
is  laid  the  obligation  to  provide  for  the 
support  and  nurture  of  the  child  until 
it  has  reached  the  years  of  independ- 
ence, and  is  capable  of  self-support. 
The  man  who  accepts  the  responsibili- 
ties of  a  father  after  he  has  passed 
middle  life,  is  assuming  obligations 
which  he  is  not  likely  to  be  able  to 
fulfil.  His  progeny,  which  are  likely 
to  be  all  the  more  dependent  because 
of  the  various  inherited  infirmities,  are 
likely  to  be  left  fatherless,  or  depend- 
ent upon  a  father  who  is  not  capable  of 
affording  them  the  sustenance  and  edu- 
cation which  it  is  his  duty  to  provide. 
These  very  children,  whose  weaknesses 
make  them  the  less  capable  of  self -sup- 


1G0  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

port,  are  doomed  to  be  left  without  care 
and  support  before  they  are  old  enough 
to  care  for  themselves  and  to  provide 
their  own  support.  It  is  wrong  for 
parents  to  bring  into  the  world  chil- 
dren who  are  to  be  left  real  orphans, 
or  practically  such,  before  reaching  ma- 
turity and  independence. 

But  the  perpetuation  of  the  human 
race  by  the  propagation  of  children  is 
not  the  only  purpose  in  the  institution 
of  marriage.  In  ordaining  marriage 
God  contemplated  the  happiness  and 
well-being  of  the  two  who  enter  into 
this  relation.  If  we  keep  this  fact  in 
mind  we  will  avoid  some  of  the  ground- 
less objections  which  are  made  to  the 
marriage  of  men  of  middle  life.  A 
man  who  knows  the  joy  of  home,  of 
companionship  and  of  the  blessings 
which  have  clustered  around  his  fire- 
side, but  who  is  left  solitary  and  alone 
by  the  death  of  his  wife,  deserves  the 
sympathy  and  the  consideration  which 
he  is  very  likely  to  receive  at  the 
hands  of  his  fellow-men,  if,  when  he 
marries  again,  he  selects  a  companion 


MAN   OF   FORTY- FIVE.  161 

of  suitable  age,  of  kindred  tastes  and 
culture,  and  spiritual  training  with 
himself.  The  trouble  generally  is  that 
the  considerations  which  prompt  to  re- 
marriage are  based  upon  physical, 
rather  than  upon  social  considerations. 
Companionship  is  not  made  the  primary, 
but  the  secondary  consideration. 

It  would  not  be  just  or  right  to  de- 
clare that  all  marriages  in  which  there 
is  a  disparity  of  age  are  induced  pri- 
marily and  principally  by  physical 
considerations.  There  are  occasional 
instances  where  persons  separated  in 
age  by  a  considerable  period  of  years, 
who  have  known  each  other  for  many 
years,  have  lived  under  the  same  influ- 
ences of  intellectual  and  spiritual  cul- 
ture, have  wrought  along  the  same 
lines  and  purposes  in  life,  may  be 
brought  together  in  a  union  of  perfect 
sympathy  and  happiness  which  is  only 
marred  by  the  suspicion  which  may 
be  unjustly  thrown  about  them. 

Such   marriages,   however,    are   not 
the  ones  against  which  the  voice  of 
dissent    is    so    generally   raised.      In 
11 


162  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

writing  upon  this  subject  Mrs.  E.  B. 
Duffey  in  "What  Women  Should 
Know,"  says  :  "  It  seems  as  though  it 
ought  to  be  unnecessary  to  mention 
the  abhorrence  with  which  all  right- 
minded  people  should  regard  the  mar- 
riage of  the  young  of  either  sex  with 
the  old  of  the  other.  There  is  some- 
thing utterly  repugnant  to  good  moral- 
ity and  good  taste  in  such  a  union.  It 
can  certainly  never  be  brought  about 
through  motives  of  mutual  affection. 
And  the  young  girl  who  would  enter 
into  the  bonds  of  marriage  through 
mercenary  motives  is  worse,  if  possi- 
ble, than  the  prostitute.  The  latter 
debases  herself  alone ;  the  former  not 
only  debases  herself,  but  degrades  the 
ordinance  of  marriage.  In  marriages 
of  convenience  between  those  of  simi- 
lar ages  there  is  still  the  possibility 
that  assimilation  of  tastes  and  feelings 
may  take  place  between  them,  ripening 
into  a  true  affection,  so  that,  after  all, 
they  shall  become  married  in  heart  as 
well  as  in  outer  bond.  But  in  the  case 
of  the  marriage  of  the  young  with  the 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  163 

old  there  is  no  possibility  of  this  final 
result,  for  there  can  never  be  any  har- 
mony of  tastes,  any  unison  of  ideas,  any 
oneness  of  purpose,  all  which  go  to  con- 
stitute marriage,  between  them." 

In  many  of  these  ill-assorted  mar- 
riages of  old  men  to  young  girls,  the 
motive  upon  one  side  is  physical,  and 
upon  the  other  is  financial.  One  lusts 
after  the  flesh,  and  the  other  lusts  after 
the  gold.  Dr.  Dio  Lewis  in  his  book 
entitled  "  Chastity,"  has  a  letter  which 
he  addressed  to  a  wealthy  gentleman 
of  sixty-six  years  of  age  who  was  about 
to  marry  a  young  girl.  As  such  in- 
stances are  not  altogether  rare,  it  is  in 
place  to  quote  Dr.  Dio  Lewis'  letter  at 
this  point. 

"  My  Dear  Mr.  II.:  I  have  no  doubt 
you  will  think  this  letter  impertinent, 
but  I  cannot  refrain.  You  are  sixty- 
six  ;  your  intended  is  eighteen.  You 
are  rich;  she  is  young  and  pretty. 
You  marry  her  for  the  same  reason 
that  an  old  Turk  purchases  a  young 
and  pretty  Circassian  girl ;  she  marries 
you  for  your  money.     Am  I  not  about 


164  3IAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

right  ?  Take  away  your  fine  house, 
carriages  and  bank  account,  and  do 
you  suppose  the  young  lady  would 
marry  you  ?  If  you  think  so,  you  are 
deceived.  She  takes  your  grand 
wealth,  subject  to  a  mortgage,  with  a 
secret  hope  that  the  mortgage  may  be 
quickly  canceled.  If  you  thought  so, 
you  would  pronounce  her  mercenary 
and  heartless.  And  such  she  undoubt- 
edly is.  But  you  are  not  the  person  to 
condemn  her.  Suppose  she  were  fifty 
years  old  instead  of  eighteen,  but  pos- 
sessed of  ten  times  the  intelligence, 
moral  development,  grace  of  manner 
and  genuine  love  for  you  that  this 
young  girl  has,  but  instead  of  a  round, 
plump  body,  was  a  little  brown  and 
wrinkled,  would  you  marry  her  ?  No ; 
it  is  not  a  companion,  an  adviser,  an 
intelligent,  appreciative,  sympathizing 
friend,  a  real  wife  and  mate,  that  you 
seek,  but  it  is  the  case  of  the  old  Turk 
with  a  bag  of  gold  visiting  the  market 
where  the  pretty  Circassian  girls  are 
for  sale. 

"  Fortunately,  you  have  no  children. 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  165 

I  have  known  several  old  men  to  marry 
young  girls  and  bring  them  home  to 
preside  over  families  of  daughters 
many  years  older  than  the  new  mother. 
In  such  cases  a  wretched  estrangement 
and  quarrel  is  inevitable.  The  bride 
is  almost  sure  to  be  designing,  with  an 
eye  on  the  treasury,  or,  what  is  com- 
mon, a  soft  young  thing  without  ideas. 
Think  of  a  childish  old  man  bringing 
this  schoolgirl  home  to  preside  over 
the  family  of  maiden  ladies  who  know 
all  about  things  and  comprehend  their 
father's  weakness !  It  is  difficult  to 
imagine  a  more  distressing  situation. 
The  marriage  of  an  old  man  to  a  young 
woman  is  a  violation  of  natural  law, 
not  to  say  of  decency ;  and  although 
it  occasionally  involves  somewhat  of 
the  '  old  man's  darling,'  the  case  is  very 
rare  in  which  there  is  not  sooner  or 
later,  a  deep,  sore  disappointment  and 
dissatisfaction,  all  around,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  secret  sneers  and  contempt  of 
outsiders." 

These  words  are  severe,  but  they  are 
no  more  severe  than  the  circumstances 


166  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

demand  in  many  instances  where  old 
age  and  decrepitude  are  united  to 
youth  and  vigor,  where  a  senile  old 
man  is  united  in  marriage  to  a  young 
girl  possessed  of  all  the  vivacity  and 
physical  attraction  with  which  God 
has  endowed  her  in  order  that  she 
might  be  rendered  attractive  and 
happy  in  a  marriage  with  a  man  of  her 
own  age.  If  there  is  anybody  who  is 
more  to  be  censured  than  the  old  man 
who  marries  such  a  girl,  it  is  the 
parents  who  encourage  and  sometimes 
compel  a  daughter  to  enter  into  a 
union  of  this  kind  because  of  the 
wealth  which  the  old  man  possesses. 

Doctor  Napheys  in  writing  of  the 
marriage  of  old  men  says:  "Where 
a  father  or  a  mother  whose  children  are 
yet  dependent  and  have  a  right  to  the 
protection  and  shelter  beneath  their 
father's  or  their  mother's  roof  desire  to 
marry  again,  they  should  always  take 
into  consideration  the  rights  of  their 
children  which  they  should  ever  be  un- 
willing to  ignore.  In  marrying  for  the 
first  time  the  parties  have  only  them- 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  167 

selves  and  their  own  happiness  pri- 
marily to  consult.  With  widows  and 
widowers  this  is  not  the  case.  Many- 
women  make  very  poor  stepmothers 
and  the  statement  is  frequently  true 
of  stepfathers.  A  discreet  physician 
says,  "  As  years  increase,  the  solicita- 
tions of  love  should  be  more  and  more 
rarely  indulged  in ;  and  they  should  at 
last  be  wholly  avoided  when  they 
leave  a  sensation  of  prostration,  or 
mental  dulness  or  disturbance.  If  at 
any  time  during  middle  life  or  later, 
absence,  or  the  death  of  a  wife,  should 
enforce  temporary  suspension  of  the 
masculine  powers,  the  greatest  caution 
should  be  exercised  on  resuming  their 
use  on  return,  or  a  second  marriage." 

Another  physician  says,  "  Experi- 
ence has  taught  me  how  vastly  differ- 
ent is  the  situation  of  the  class  of 
moderate  men,  who,  having  married 
early,  and  regularly  indulged  their 
passions  at  longer  and  longer  intervals, 
seldom  come  under  the  medical  man's 
notice,  from  that  of  widowers  of  some 
years'   standing,   or   men  who   have, 


168  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

through  the  demands  of  public  or  other 
duties,  been  separated  from  their  wives 
during  prolonged  periods.  When  the 
latter  class,  after  leading  lives  of 
chastity,  suddenly  resume  sexual  inter- 
course, they  are  apt  to  suffer  greatly 
from  generative  disorders.  The  sudden 
call  on  the  nervous  system  after  years 
of  rest,  gives  a  shock  to  any  constitu- 
tion, and  especially  to  those  who  are 
already  somewhat  feeble." 

But  there  is  another  consideration 
which  is  of  paramount  importance. 
The  question  of  the  effect  of  late  mar- 
riage in  the  production  of  a  weak 
progeny  and  the  question  of  com- 
panionship, home  and  happiness  are  not 
the  only  considerations.  It  is  impor- 
tant also  to  consider  the  physical  and 
intellectual  effect  of  the  marriage  of  a 
man  in  middle  or  later  life  to  a  woman 
who  is  many  years  his  junior,  especially 
if  the  marriage  is  induced  upon  the 
part  of  the  man  by  physical  consider- 
ations. If  the  man  is  intelligent  and 
his  wife  is  apprised  of  the  fact,  and 
sympathizes   with   him   and   a  life  of 


MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  169 

great  moderation  is  lived,  sad  conse- 
quences may  be  avoided.  But  where 
the  husband  is  ignorant  of  the  terrible 
consequences  which  may  ensue,  and  in- 
dulges his  sexual  inclinations,  he  is  in 
great  danger  of  suffering  any  one  or  a 
number  of  diseases  which  make  up 
quite  a  catalogue.  Many  a  man  of 
splendid  intellectual  endowment,  but 
who  was  thoroughly  unacquainted 
with  the  results  of  excesses  to  men  of 
middle  life,  has  married  and  moved 
blindly  forward  until  he  has  stood 
under  a  cloud  of  great  physical  em- 
barrassment or  mental  darkness. 
Physicians  have  frequently  noted  that 
after  a  period  of  months,  or  of  a  few 
years,  softening  of  the  brain  has  en- 
sued, while  the  poor  victim  has  been 
all  unconscious  of  the  terrible  conse- 
quences which  in  his  ignorance  he  was 
pulling  down  upon  his  own  head.  In 
enumerating  some  of  the  effects  of  such 
excesses  to  men  of  middle  life,  Doctor 
Acton  says,  "  In  some,  its  effects  as- 
sume the  form  of  hypochondriasis, 
followed   by   all  the  protean  miseries 


170  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

of  indigestion ;  in  others,  of  fatuity ; 
in  the  more  advanced  stages  paralysis 
or  paraplegia  comes  on,  accompanied  by 
softening  of  the  brain  and  its  attendant 
consequences.  What  in  earlier  life 
was  attended  by  temporary  languor,  is 
in  age  not  unusually  followed  by  the 
train  of  symptoms  alluded  to  above ; 
and,  when  we  are  called  in,  it  is  too  late 
to  do  aught  but  palliate  them. 

"  I  am  every  day  becoming  more 
convinced  that  many  of  the  affections 
of  the  brain,  under  which  elderly  per- 
sons suffer,  and  to  which  a  certain  pro- 
portion annually  succumbs,  are  caused 
by  excesses  committed  at  a  time  when 
the  enfeebled  powers  are  unable  to  sup- 
port them ;  and  I  think  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  medical  profession  to  put  such 
sufferers  in  possession  of  these  facts. 
Kind  advice  and  sympathy  would  thus, 
I  am  sure,  save  the  valuable  life  of 
many  a  man  who  errs  from  ignorance. 
Let  us  listen  to  the  warning  voice  of 
one  who,  as  I  have  before  said,  has  writ- 
ten the  best  work  on  the  diseases  of 
old  age.      Parise  is  inveighing  against 


MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  171 

ill-assorted  marriages  of  elderly  per- 
sons. '  There  are  great  risks  run ;  for 
in  the  extreme  disparity  of  age,  and 
oftentimes  of  condition — as  when  a 
man  is  rich  and  the  girl  is  young — na- 
ture avenges  herself  by  spreading  scan- 
dals— doubts  about  paternity  and  do- 
mestic troubles ;  everything  is  at  va- 
riance, age,  disposition,  character, 
tastes,  and  amusements.  '  What  shall 
I  do  with  him,  and  what  will  he  do 
with  me  ?  '  said  a  clever  young  girl  of 
eighteen,  whose  parents  wished  her  to 
marry  an  old  gentleman.  With  regard 
to  health  and  vital  force,  it  is  easy  to 
foresee  what  will  become  of  them  in 
these  unequal  marriages,  where  a  young 
and  fresh  girl  is  '  flesh  of  the  flesh,'  of 
a  man  used  up  from  age,  and  mayhap 
from  excesses.  Evidently  she  commits 
a  suicidal  act  more  or  less  certain  or 
rapid.  On  the  other  hand  experience 
shows  that  the  elderly  man  who  thus 
risks  his  repose  and  his  existence, 
speedily  finds  his  health  grievously  af- 
fected.' 

"  Let  the  elderly  man,  then,  pause 


172  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

and  reflect,  that  a  human  sacrifice, 
either  male  or  female,  is  generally 
bound  to  the  horns  of  the  altar  that 
sanctifies  such  marriages.  In  the  pres- 
ent state  of  society  with  our  manners, 
passions,  miseries,  man  does  not  always 
die — he  sometimes  destroys  himself. 
And  the  sort  of  union  I  have  touched 
upon  is  one  of  the  most  ingenious  de- 
vices of  men  to  expedite  that  natural 
'  wear  and  tear '  by  which  our  vital 
forces  are  expended  in  the  course  of 
three-score  years  and  ten." 

Where  old  men  marry  young  women, 
dissatisfaction,  discord,  dissension  and 
divorce  or  death  are  likely  to  follow. 
The  former  of  these,  or  indeed  the  en- 
tire category,  may  come  as  the  result 
of  the  loss  of  virile  power  growing  out 
of  sexual  excesses.  "Where  the  wife  is 
possessed  of  inclinations  to  which  the 
husband  may  not  respond  because  of 
lack  of  virile  power,  there  is  likely  to 
come  to  him  a  sense  of  anguish  and 
mental  suffering.  A  philosophical 
writer  says :  "  In  losing  the  command  of 
this  function  at  an  age  when  it  should 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  173 

be  vigorous,  man  loses  his  self-respect, 
because  he  feels  himself  fallen  in  im- 
portance in  relation  to  his  species. 
Therefore  the  loss  of  virile  power,  real 
or  supposed,  produces  an  effect  more 
overpowering  than  that  of  honors,  for- 
tune, friends  or  relatives ;  even  the  loss 
of  liberty  is  as  nothing  compared  to 
this  internal  and  continual  torture. 
Those  who  suffer  from  injustice  or  mis- 
fortune can  accuse  their  enemy,  society, 
chance,  etc.,  and  invent  or  retain  the 
consciousness  of  not  having  deserved 
their  loss ;  they  have,  moreover,  the 
consolation  of  being  able  to  complain, 
and  a  certainty  of  sympathy.  But  the 
impotent  man  can  make  a  confidant  of 
no  one.  His  misery  is  of  a  sort  which 
cannot  even  inspire  pity,  and  his  great- 
est anxiety  is  to  allow  no  one  to  pene- 
trate his  dismal  secret." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   YEARS   BEYOND. 

The  Man  at  Forty-Five  Determines  What  the  Man 
at  Eighty  shall  be. — A  Genial,  Companionable 
old  Age  Possible  to  All. — Growing  old  Beauti- 
fully.— Importance  of  Well-Defined  Purpose  to 
Keep  Strong  and  Bright. — The  Principles  of 
Chauncey  M.  Depew.  —  The  Choice  of  Exer- 
cise.— Gladstone  Greater  at  Eighty  Than  at 
Fifty. — Weak  Bodies  Command,  Strong  Bodies 
Obey. — Napoleon's  View  of  Physical  Strength. 
— Never  too  Old  to  Begin  Physical  Culture. — 
Better  to  Begin  Early. — Illustrations  of  Men 
of  Power  in  Advanced  Years. — William  Cullen 
Bryant's  Mode  of  Life. — Exercise  in  Doors  and 
Out  of  Doors. 

The  man  who  has  reached  the  age 
of  forty-five  has  entered  upon  that 
period  which  bears  a  very  important 
relation  to  the  years  beyond.  As  the 
years  of  boyhood  determine  what  the 
mature  man  is  to  be,  so  these  years 
which  have  been  called  "  the  youth  of 
old  age  "  determine  what  the  man  is 

175 


176  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

to  be  throughout  the  remainder  of  his 
life.  These  are  the  mouths  when  he 
is  to  decide  whether  the  years  which 
still  remain  to  him  shall  be  years  of 
weakness,  decrepitude,  devoid  of  pur- 
pose and  without  energy  ;  whether  he 
will  be  cross  and  cranky,  irritable  and 
uncompanionable,  or  whether  his  years 
shall  be  characterized  by  strength  and 
vigor  and  energy  and  usefulness, 
whether  he  will  be  sweet  and  genial, 
whether  he  will  be  in  sympathy  with 
the  young  and  the  middle-aged  in  their 
aims  and  purposes,  or  whether  he  will 
be  a  burden  to  himself  or  a  blessing  to 
the  world.  What  he  is  to  be  will  be 
dependent  upon  present  thought,  prin- 
ciple and  purpose. 

A  young  girl,  a  few  days  since,  when 
speaking  of  a  white-haired  visitor  who 
had  just  taken  her  departure,  said,  "  If 
I  could  be  such  an  old  lady  as  that,  so 
beautiful,  serene,  sweet  and  lovable,  I 
wouldn't  mind  growing  old." 

Her  keen  witted  companion  who 
was  present  at  the  time  replied, 
"  Well,  if  you  want  to  be  that  kind  of 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  177 

an  old  lady  you  had  better  begin  mak- 
ing her  right  now.  She  doesn't  strike 
me  as  a  piece  of  work  that  was  done 
in  a  hurry ;  it  has  taken  a  long  time  to 
make  her  what  she  is.  If  you  are  go- 
ing to  paint  that  sort  of  a  portrait  of 
yourself  to  leave  to  the  world,  you  had 
better  be  mixing  your  colors  now." 

There  was  a  volume  of  logic  and 
good  sense  in  this  reply.  Every  man 
of  forty-five  is  "  mixing  the  colors " 
with  which  he  is  about  to  begin  the 
painting  of  the  portrait  which  shall 
present  to  the  world  what  kind  of  a 
man  he  was  during  the  closing  years 
of  his  life. 

It  is  important  that  every  man  of 
forty-five  should  have  well  defined 
purposes  with  regard  to  intellectual, 
physical  and  moral  culture.  If  he  be- 
comes possessed  of  the  idea  that  he  is 
growing  old  and  does  not  need  to  read 
and  keep  up  with  the  thought  and 
jDrogress  of  the  day,  if  he  allows  his 
physical  powers  to  deteriorate  because 
of  lack  of  proper  attention,  if  he  with- 
draws himself  from  recreation  and 
12 


178  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

shuts  himself  out  from  society  and  the 
companionship  of  friends,  he  is  laying 
up  discomfort  and  misery  not  only  for 
himself,  but  for  all  by  whom  he  shall 
be  surrounded. 

Chauncey  M.  Depew,  the  president 
of  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson 
River  Railroad,  a  man  blessed  with 
splendid  physique,  good  health  and 
immense  capacity  for  work,  after  hav- 
ing spent  a  quarter  of  a  century  with 
that  company,  said  "  I  early  made  up 
my  mind  from  observing  the  men  who 
have  broken  down  around  me  and 
gone  to  pieces,  that  the  only  safe  way 
is  variety  of  occupation  ;  that  unless  a 
man  could  relieve  the  strain  by  excur- 
sions into  other  fields,  and  especially 
such  things  as  would  keep  up  his 
cheerfulness  and  hopefulness,  he  was 
gone.  I  care  nothing  for  cards,  take 
no  interest  in  games  of  chance,  and  at 
first  used  to  spend  my  evenings  late 
into  the  night  in  continuing  the  busi- 
ness of  the  day.  Of  course,  that  pro- 
duced sleeplessness,  and  in  a  short  time 
led  to  an  overstrain  in  one  direction  of 


M AN    OF    FORTY-FIVE.  179 

the  same  brain  fibres,  which  destroyed 
their  elasticity,  and  resulted  in  bad 
judgment  and  poor  work.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  the  extremely  busy 
man  can  do  better  the  next  day,  if, 
after  his  business  hours,  he  can  switch 
his  mental  machinery  off  into  some 
channel  which  gives  rest  and  recrea- 
tion." 

Just  what  forms  of  recreation  a  man 
at  forty-five  should  adopt  will  depend 
very  largely  upon  his  earlier  occupa- 
tion, daily  vocation,  financial  resources, 
his  family,  his  social  and  religious  life. 
Even  the  man  who  has  not  received  an 
inheritance  of  the  largest  physical  en- 
dowment, by  care,  culture  and  persist- 
ent exercise,  and  with  an  inspiring 
purpose  in  life  can  go  steadily  for- 
ward until  eighty  years  of  age  and  be- 
yond with  his  eye  undimmed  and  his 
physical  force  largely  unabated. 

It  is  said  of  Wm.  E.  Gladstone,  the 
great  English  statesman,  that  at  eighty 
years  of  age  he  was  superior  to  what 
he  was  at  fifty.  All  this  came  of  an 
inspiring  purpose  in  life,  a  resolute  will 


180  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

and  persistent  determination  which 
kept  him  devoted  to  his  daily  recrea- 
tions and  regular  means  of  physical 
culture,  to  his  trust  in  God  and  his 
ability  to  sleep  well.  Over  his  mantel- 
piece in  his  bedroom  there  was  em- 
blazoned the  text  which  doubtless  en- 
tered into  his  inner  life  and  banished 
nervous  exhaustion,  made  him  calm 
and  peaceful  and  enabled  him  to  spend 
in  restful  sleep  the  hours  which  so 
many  devote  to  anxiety  and  worry. 
The  text  runs ;  "  Thou  wilt  keep  him 
in  perfect  peace  whose  mind  is  stayed 
on  Thee." 

At  every  period  of  life,  the  value 
of  good  health  is  beyond  computation ; 
but  it  seems  even  more  valuable  to 
men  of  middle  life  and  beyond,  be- 
cause in  so  many  instances  it  has  been 
sadly  undervalued,  until  finally  lost. 
The  means  of  attaining  it  are  easily 
within  the  reach  of  all  who  are  in 
normal  condition,  but  its  value  is 
scarcely  realized  until  it  has  been  lost, 
and  then  persons  spend  thousands  of 
dollars  and  years  of  effort  seeking  to 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  181 

regain  that  which,  while  in  their  pos- 
session, they  estimated  so  lightly. 

It  has  been  well  said,  "  The  weaker 
the  body,  the  more  it  commands ;  the 
stronger  it  is,  the  more  it  obeys."  One 
of  the  most  eminent  physicians  af- 
firms it  as  his  conviction  that  four- 
fifths  of  all  the  ills  from  which  human 
beings  suffer  are  caused  by  an  insuffi- 
cient amount  of  exercise.  Blackie  in 
his  book  on  "  Self  Culture  "  says,  "  The 
measure  of  a  man's  vitality  is  the 
measure  of  his  working  power.  To 
possess  every  faculty  and  function  of 
the  body  in  harmonious  working  order 
is  to  be  healthy ;  to  be  healthy  with  a 
high  degree  of  vital  force  is  to  be 
strong.  A  man  may  be  healthy  with- 
out being  strong  ;  but  all  health  tends 
more  or  less  towards  strength  ;  and  all 
disease  is  weakness." 

Napoleon  said,  "  The  first  requisite 
of  good  generalship  is  good  health.  To 
the  strong  hand,  head,  limbs  and  frame, 
fall  the  heavy  burdens ;  and  there  fall  the 
great  prizes  too.  Preparation  for  every 
contingency  made  Cassar.     By  activity 


182  31  AN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

and  giant  determination,  rather  than 
military  skill,  he  won."  Pliny  said, 
"  It  is  wonderful  how  much  the  mind 
is  enlivened  by  the  motions  and  exer- 
cise of  the  body." 

If  we  could  say  anything  to  induce 
all  men  of  forty-five  to  resolve  to  pos- 
sess themselves  of  the  advantages 
which  are  open  to  every  person  by  a 
series  of  daily,  systematic  exercise, 
we  would  confer  upon  our  fellow-men 
a  benediction  of  good  health,  good 
cheer  and  blessings  impossible  to  esti- 
mate. By  exercise  we  do  not  mean 
that  a  man  is  to  lounge  lazily  in  the 
hammock,  or  loll  in  the  shade ;  but  Ave 
do  mean  that  a  suitable  portion  of  each 
day  should  be  devoted  to  cheerful, 
hearty,  energetic  recreation  and  phys- 
ical exercise. 

But  some  men  who  have  never 
swung  Indian  clubs,  handled  dumb 
bells,  pulled  at  exercisers,  tugged  at 
the  oar,  walked  with  vigor  by  the  mile, 
and  by  the  hour,  will  say,  that  at 
forty-five  or  sixty  or  seventy  they  are 
two  old  to  begin.     This  is  a  great  mis- 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  183 

take.  ISTo  one  is  ever  too  old  to  begin, 
although  the  earlier  he  begins  the  bet- 
ter. If  the  body  is  weak  and  the 
muscles  are  flabby,  the  beginning- 
should  be  made  with  consideration  and 
moderation.  But  where  the  exercise 
is  well  chosen,  begun  moderately,  and 
persistently  pursued,  the  results  will  be 
astonishing.  A  few  days  of  such  exer- 
cise  will  give  assurance  of  what  a  few 
weeks  will  secure,  and  the  end  of  a 
month  or  two  will  bring  a  reward 
which  could  scarcely  have  been  antici- 
pated. "When  the  blood  is  sent  cours- 
ing in  a  strong  and  healthy  flow 
through  the  entire  body  the  muscles 
will  acquire  strength,  pallor  will  disap- 
pear from  the  cheek,  languor  from  the 
eye,  and  force  and  manly  courage  will 
declare  themselves  in  every  movement 
of  the  body,  food  will  taste  as  in  the 
days  of  yore,  and  the  sleep  will  be 
sweet  and  refreshing. 

Many  persons  are  inclined  to  believe 
that  physical  culture  is  valuable  only 
to  the  young.  Experience  shows  the 
absurdity    of    such    a    theory.     The 


184  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

young  may  secure  a  larger  reward  in 
the  form  of  a  more  permanent  result ; 
but  a  certain  amount  of  exercise  is  es- 
sential to  good  health  at  all  periods  of 
life.  What  can  be  done  for  a  man, 
even  at  seventy-two  years  of  age  is 
seen  in  the  instance  of  Thomas  House- 
worth  of  California.  "  For  forty  years 
he  followed  the  occupation  of  an 
optician.  At  sixty-five  his  health 
failed,  and  after  three  attacks  of  the 
grippe,  his  physician,  who  had  at- 
tended him  for  over  thirty-six  years, 
stated  that  there  was  but  little  hope 
of  his  permanent  recovery.  About 
this  time  he  became  interested  in  phys- 
ical culture,  and  was  so  impressed  that 
he  determined  to  give  it  a  trial.  A 
teacher  was  in  his  locality  and  he 
joined  his  class.  The  marvellous  im- 
provement of  his  general  condition  was 
noted  with  pleasure.  In  five  weeks  he 
gained  five  inches  in  chest  expansion. 
There  was  a  gold  medal  offered  to  the 
member  of  this  class  who  would  per- 
form the  movements  most  gracefully 
and   accurately,  and,  notwithstanding 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  185 

his  extreme  age,  and  though  there  were 
two  hundred  and  ninety  competitors, 
he  succeeded  in  winning  this  medal. 
He  is  an  enthusiastic  cyclist  and  is  con- 
sidered the  champion  high  kicker  in  his 
locality." 

What  exercise  will  do  for  a  man,  not 
only  of  forty-five  or  fifty,  but  of  eighty 
years  and  beyond  is  beautifully  illus- 
trated in  the  case  of  Win.  Cullen  Bryant, 
the  poet,  formerly  the  editor  of  the  New 
York  Evening  Post,  and  an  indefati- 
gable literary  worker.  Shortly  after 
his  death,  in  the  semi-weekly  issue  of 
the  Evening  Post,  of  June  the  14th, 
IS 78,  there  appeared  the  following 
letter,  written  by  Mr.  Bryant  in  March, 
1871,  and  addressed  to  Joseph  H.  Rich- 
ards, Esq.,  in  which  Mr.  Bryant  de- 
scribed the  habits  of  his  life,  and  the 
wonderful  preservation  of  his  physical 
and  mental  vigor.  "  I  promised  some- 
time since  to  give  you  some  account  of 
my  habits  of  life,  so  far  at  least  as  re- 
gards diet,  exercise,  and  occupation. 
I  am  not  sure  that  it  will  be  of  any 
use  to  you,  although  the  system  which 


186  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

I  have  for  many  years  observed  seems 
to  answer  my  purpose  very  well.  I 
have  reached  a  pretty  advanced  period 
of  life  without  the  usual  infirmities  of 
old  age,  and  with  my  strength,  ac- 
tivity, and  bodily  faculties  generally, 
in  pretty  good  preservation.  How  far 
this  may  be  the  effect  of  my  way  of 
life,  adopted  long  ago  and  steadily  ad- 
hered to,  is  perhaps  uncertain. 

"  I  rise  early  ;  at  this  time  of  the 
year  about  half-past  five ;  in  summer 
half  an  hour  or  even  an  hour  earlier. 
Immediately,  with  very  little  incum- 
brance of  clothing,  I  begin  a  series  of 
exercises,  for  the  most  part  designed 
to  expand  the  chest,  and  at  the  same 
time  call  into  action  all  the  muscles 
and  articulations  of  the  body.  These 
are  performed  with  dumb  bells,  the 
very  lightest,  covered  with  flannel, 
with  a  pole,  a  horizontal  bar,  and  a 
light  chair  swung  around  my  head. 
After  a  full  hour,  and  sometimes  more, 
passed  in  this  manner,  I  bathe  from 
head  to  foot.  When  at  my  place  in 
the  country,  I  sometimes  shorten  my 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  187 

exercises  in  the  chamber,  and,  going 
out,  occupy  myself  for  half  an  hour  or 
more  in  some  work  which  requires 
brisk  exercise.  After  my  bath,  if 
breakfast  be  not  ready,  I  sit  down  to 
my  studies  till  I  am  called. 

"After  breakfast  I  occupy  myself 
for  a  while  with  mv  studies,  and  then, 
when  in  town,  I  walk  down  to  the 
office  of  the  Evening  Post,  nearly 
three  miles  distant,  and,  after  about 
three  hours,  return,  always  walking, 
whatever  be  the  weather  or  the  state 
of  the  streets.  In  the  country,  I  am 
engaged  in  my  library  tasks  till  a  feel- 
ing of  weariness  drives  me  out  into  the 
open  air,  and  I  go  upon  my  farm  or 
into  the  garden  and  prune  the  fruit- 
trees,  or  perform  some  other  work 
about  them  which  they  need,  and  then 
go  back  to  my  books.  I  do  not  often 
drive  out,  preferring  to  walk." 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  in- 
stances of  men  of  middle  life  and  be- 
yond who  have  retained  their  full 
physical  and  mental  powers  by  phys- 
ical effort  and  energy  in  the  open  air, 


188  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

and  by  exercise  and  physical  culture 
within  doors.  To  those  who  desire 
added  information  along  these  lines, 
and  who  wish  to  read  an  excellent 
book  on  physical  culture  we  would 
recommend  the  volume  entitled  "  How 
to  Get  Strong  and  How  to  Stay  So," 
by  Wm,  Blackie,  published  by  Harper 
and  Brothers,  New  York. 

Wonderful  results  can  be  secured  by 
devoting  only  ten  or  even  fifteen  min- 
utes daily  to  systematic  exercise. 
Larger  results  can  be  secured  by  de- 
voting more  time ;  but  it  matters  not 
how  busy  one's  life  may  be,  he  can 
easily  devote  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  to 
physical  culture  immediately  upon  ris- 
ing in  the  morning.  When  a  good 
exerciser  can  be  purchased  for  three  or 
four  dollars,  or  a  pair  of  good  dumb 
bells  weighing  three  or  four  pounds 
a  piece,  at  a  cost  not  exceeding  fifty 
cents,  the  price  of  good  health  is  surely 
within  the  reach  of  all. 

Care  should  always  be  taken  to 
have  plenty  of  fresh  air  in  the  sleeping 
apartments ;  and  increased  value  will 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  189 

be  added  to  the  exercise  if  it  is  fol- 
lowed by  a  sponge  or  hand  bath  and  a 
good  vigorous  rubbing  of  the  body, 
and  this  can  be  done  with  no  larger 
resource  than  a  washbowl  in  one's 
sleeping  room.  What  the  reward  of 
these  things  is  we  have  the  blessedness 
of  knowing  by  personal  experience 
since  we  were  eighteen  years  of  age. 

To  those  of  our  readers  who  desire 
to  know  not  only  what  they  should  do, 
but  how  they  should  do  it,  we  would 
recommend  them  to  purchase  some 
good  magazine  on  physical  culture. 

There  are  various  systems  of  exer- 
cise, both  with  and  without  apparatus, 
all  of  which  are  meritorious,  and  con- 
cerning which  any  person  can  secure 
full  information  by  addressing  the 
physical  director  of  any  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Associations  in  the 
larger  cities  ;  or  by  noting  some  of  the 
apparatus  used  in  physical  culture  as 
advertised  in  the  magazines,  or  by  in- 
quiry of  the  editor  of  any  health  jour- 
nal or  of  the  editor  of  some  magazine 
on  physical  culture. 


PART  II. 

What  a  Man  of  Forty-five  Ought  to 
Know  Concerning  His  Wife. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

REPELLENT  PEOPLE  AND  REPELLENT 
PERIODS. 

The  Husband  Should  be  Intelligent  Concerning  His 
"Wife  for  His  Own  Good. — For  Her  Comfort  and 
Well-being  Also. — Reproduction  the  Great  Pri- 
mal Purpose  in  the  Institution  of  Marriage. — 
The  Strength  and  Nature  of  the  Amative  Incli- 
nation.— Repellent  People,  or  People  Devoid  of 
Sexual  Inclination. — Absence  of  Amativeness 
Recognized  by  Children. — Advantages  and  Dis- 
advantages of  Such  Persons. — The  Repellent 
Periods  of  Attractive  People. — Why  Repellent 
at  Menstrual  Period.— Why  Repellent  After  Con- 
ception and  During  Period  of  Gestation. — Uni- 
versal Homage  Due  and  Paid  to  Expectant 
Motherhood. — Reproach  of  Wives  Who  Refuse 
Motherhood.— Nature's  Method  for  Securing 
Undisturbed  Maternity. — The  Third  and  Great 
Repellent  Period. 

We  have  now  come  to  the  second 
division  of  our  subject,  namely,  What 
a  man  of  forty-five  ought  to  know  con- 
cerning his  wife.  In  writing  to  hus- 
bands  upon  this  subject,  our  treatment 

13  193 


194  31  AN    OF   FORTY- FIVE. 

will,  of  course,  be  very  different  from 
what  it  would  be  if  we  were  writing 
to  women  themselves.  What  we  pro- 
pose is,  to  endeavor  to  make  the  hus- 
band intelligent  upon  these  subjects,  so 
that  he  may  understand  and  interpret 
to  himself  conditions  which  otherwise 
might  afford  him  great  perplexity  and 
oftentimes  great  embarrassment  and 
difficulty.  The  changes  through  which 
the  wife  passes  at  the  period  of  middle 
life  should  be  understood  by  the  hus- 
band for  his  own  good  and  comfort. 

But  it  is  not  only  for  his  own  good  that 
he  should  be  intelligent  concerning  the 
changes  and  manifestations  which  at- 
tend the  climacteric  period  in  the  phys- 
ical life  of  women,  but  he  should  be 
intelligent  upon  these  subjects  for  the 
good  and  comfort  of  his  wife  also. 
Without  intelligence  how  could  he  pro- 
tect her  in  this  period  of  her  life  when 
she  needs  to  be  guarded  and  shielded 
in  ways  which  were  not  previously 
necessary  ?  How  shall  he  sympathize 
with  her  in  the  great  struggles  and 
trials,  through  which  so  many  women 


MAN   OF  FORTY- FIVE.  195 

are  called  upon  to  pass,  at  this  period 
of  her  life,  unless  he  is  intelligent  and 
understands  something  of  the  nature 
and  character  of  these  changes  ? 

To  understand  either  himself  or  his 
wife  in  their  modified  emotions  at  that 
period  when  the  sexual  hush  comes  to 
the  husband  and  the  wife,  it  is  neces- 
sary that  the  whole  subject  should  be 
viewed,  not  from  the  low  standard  of 
a  debased  sexual  passion,  but  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  exalted  purpose  which 
God  had  in  mind  in  endowing  men  and 
women  with  reproductive  power  and 
inclination.  No  one  can  study  this 
subject  without  being  convinced  that 
the  great  primal  purpose  for  which 
marriage  was  instituted  is  the  repro- 
duction of  the  species  and  the  perpetu- 
ation of  the  race. 

In  order  that  neither  love  for  her 
parents  nor  the  love  of  her  childhood 
home,  nor  the  pains  and  perils  of  mater- 
nity upon  the  part  of  the  woman ;  nor 
the  cost  of  the  support  of  two  persons  in- 
stead of  one,  the  maintenance  of  a  home 
and  the  many  difficulties  which  con- 


•. 


196  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

front  men  in  assuming  the  additional 
burdens  which  marriage  imposes  should 
stand  in  the  way  of  this  marriage 
union,  God  has  endowed  both  men  and 
women  with  a  sexual  inclination  strong 
enough  to  overcome  such  deterrents. 
The  impulses  which  move  them  to  af- 
fectionate considerations,  and  the  de- 
sire to  be  constantly  in  each  other's 
company,  may  not  be  recognized  by 
them  as  a  sexual  inclination,  but  these 
sentiments  and  inclinations  are  never- 
theless absent  in  those  who  are  wholly 
devoid  of  sexual  characteristics. 

But  God  has  not  only  designed  that 
men  and  women  should  be  attracted  to 
each  other  in  a  marriage  union  for  the 
reproduction  of  the  species,  but  He  has 
also  designed  that  at  those  intervals 
when  reproduction  is  likely  to  be  inter- 
fered with  by  untimely  sexual  congress 
the  sexual  inclinations  should  be  greatly 
diminished,  and  that  the  attractive 
forces  should  then  be  largely  converted 
into  what  may  be  called  a  repellent 
force.  In  arriving  therefore  at  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  nature  and  pur- 


MAN    OF  FORTY-FIVE.  197 

pose  of  the  changes  which  take  place 
in  the  physical  life  of  women  at  the 
climacteric  period,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  understand  something  of  the  subject 
which  we  have  indicated  by  the  title 
at  the  head  of  this  chapter. 

In  writing  of  repellent  people  and 
repellent  periods,  it  should  be  under- 
stood that  we  use  the  word  "repel- 
lent," not  in  that  strong  sense  which 
would  characterize  the  word  if  we 
were  writing  of  repulsive  sexual  per- 
verts, but  of  "  repellent,"  in  the  sense 
that  the  strong  attractive  force  then  be- 
comes so  much  abated,  that  the  wife 
who  at  other  times  would  not  only  de- 
sire but  seek  her  husband's  caresses 
and  embraces,  will  prefer  at  these 
periods  to  be  excused  from  most  if  not 
all  sexual  approaches.  She  may  be 
simply  sexually  repellent,  while  at  the 
same  time  she  may  not  in  any  measure 
be  devoid  of  the  intellectual,  social  and 
other  attractions,  which  may  render 
her  interesting  and  companionable. 

Every  person  is  likely  to  have  ob- 
served occasional  families  where  intel- 


198  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

ligence,  refinement,  culture  and  all 
the  endowments  and  graces  possessed 
by  other  people  are  present,  and  yet 
where  all  the  sons  grow  to  be  bachelors 
and  the  daughters  all  grow  to  be  old 
maids.  People  note  the  fact,  and 
oftentimes  express  surprise,  that  only 
occasional  members  of  such  families 
yield  themselves  to  the  inclination  to 
marry.  Under  certain  conditions, 
young  women  of  this  class,  if  the  op- 
portunity is  afforded,  sometimes  con- 
sent to  marry  for  the  purpose  of  ob- 
taining a  home,  to  avoid  what  they 
regard  as  a  reproach  by  not  being 
married,  or  for  other  considerations ; 
but  they  are  never  moved  to  it  by  the 
sentiments  and  inclinations  which  so 
generally  induce  others  to  assume  the 
duties  and  obligations  of  marriage. 

Children  of  this  class  may  live  with- 
out dangers  in  the  midst  of  perils 
which  are  hazardous  and  oftentimes 
destructive  to  other  kinds  of  children. 
Solitary  vice  never  appeals  to  such 
children,  and  we  have  had  persons  of 
this  class,  who  had  arrived  at  the  age 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  199 

of  full  maturity,  say  that  when  a  child 
at  school  they  had  never  been  ap- 
proached by  other  children  with  evil 
thoughts  or  vile  suggestions.  The  rea- 
son why  this  is  true  is  because,  in  many 
instances,  such  persons  are  devoid  of 
those  strong  sexual  characteristics 
which  distinguish  other  children. 
Without  reasoning  at  all,  children 
intuitively,  but  unthinkingly  and  un- 
knowingly judge  their  companions  in 
these  as  in  many  other  matters.  Such 
persons  are  not  approached  simply  be- 
cause they  are  so  measurably  devoid 
of  sexual  inclination  as  to  fail  to  at- 
tract to  themselves  either  the  pure  or 
the  impure  who  are  possessed  of  strong 
amative  inclinations.  We  have  known 
men  of  this  class  to  arrive  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  before  the 
ordinary  thoughts  which  are  common 
to  boys  of  eight  and  ten  concerning  sex 
and  sexual  relations  have  ever  occurred 
to  their  minds. 

This  lack  of  the  amative  inclination 
might  be  regarded  by  some  as  desirable 
in  children ;    but  when  we  remember 


200  MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

that  amativeness  is  strong  in  all  the 
great  characters  which  rise  to  eminence 
and  distinction  in  almost  all  the  de- 
partments of  human  life  and  useful- 
ness, the  absence  of  this  sexual  attract- 
iveness cannot  be  regarded  as  a  virtue, 
but  as  an  absence  of  something  which 
is  rather  to  be  deplored.  Such  persons, 
as  we  have  already  said,  do  not  repel, 
but  fail  to  attract  others  to  themselves. 
They  may  have  friends,  but  the  friend- 
ships do  not  ripen  into  such  affection 
and  love  as  prompts  to  marriage. 

As  there  are  those  who  mav  be  at- 
tractive  in  some  ways  while  they  are 
at  all  times  unattractive  sexually,  so 
there  are  others  who  may  be  even  not- 
ably deficient  in  intellectual,  spiritual 
or  moral  attractiveness,  but  who  are 
entitled  to  rank  as  sexually  attractive. 
All  members  of  this  class  are  not  pos- 
sessed of  beauty  or  even  of  physical 
attractions,  but  amativeness  is  a  quality 
which  they  possess  in  a  large  degree, 
and  other  people  are  apt  to  like 
them,  even  though  they  cannot  tell 
why. 


MAN   OF  FORTY- FIVE.  201 

But  people  who  are  sexually  attract- 
ive at  times  are  not  so  all  the  time. 
Even  those  women  who  are  physically 
most  attractive  have  periods  when  they 
are  less  attractive,  or  what  may  be  de- 
nominated repellent  periods. 

One  of  these  periods  occurs  at  the 
time  of  her  regular  monthly  "  sick- 
ness," which  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
spoken  of  as  "  the  days  of  her  separa- 
tion," and  the  reason  is  not  difficult  to 
find.  The  primal  purpose  of  coition  is 
reproduction.  During  this  period  she 
repels  the  male,  not  only  because  of 
impulses  of  delicacy  and  cleanliness, 
but  because  her  deeper  nature  is  con- 
scious of  such  changes  as  are  necessary 
in  order  to  fit  her  for  the  office  of 
conception  for  which  she  is  to  be 
fully  prepared  in  the  course  of  a  few 
days.  Intuitively,  without  any  con- 
sideration upon  her  part,  she  not  only 
ceases  to  attract,  but  if  approached,  is 
likely  to  repel,  even  the  husband  whom 
she  loves.  In  the  fifteenth  chapter  of 
the  book  of  Leviticus,  beginning  with 
the  sixteenth  verse,  the  law  of  cleanli- 


202  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

ness  at  this  time  is  very  clearly  laid 
down.  This  law  is  not  only  clearly 
written  in  the  Mosaic  code,  but  in  the 
very  nature  of  woman  herself. 

During  the  period  of  the  monthly 
sickness  most  women  are  nervous  and 
given  to  more  or  less  irritability. 
This  nervous  condition  is,  probably,  less 
due  to  the  menstrual  flow  than  it  is  to 
the  ovulation.  It  is  found  in  those  in- 
stances in  which  women  do  not  men- 
struate and  ovulate  at  the  same  time, 
that  the  period  of  physical  depression 
is  attendant,  not  upon  the  period  when 
they  menstruate,  but  upon  the  period 
when  they  ovulate — at  the  period  when 
the  egg  ripens  and  passes  from  the 
ovary  and  is  transferred  into  the  fallo- 
pian tube.  No  thoughtful  or  consid- 
erate husband  can  fail,  even  though 
his  wife  should  be  irritable  at  these 
periods,  to  afford  her  that  sympathy 
and  affectionate  treatment  which  she 
so  justly  deserves. 

Another  period  at  which  women 
cease  to  be  attractive  and  become  re- 
pellent, not  only  to  sexual  approaches, 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  203 

but  even  to  manifestations  of  affec- 
tion, is  during  the  period  which  inter- 
venes between  the  time  of  conception 
and  the  full  restoration  of  her  physical 
nature  after  the  birth  of  the  child. 
"When  the  great  primal  purpose  for 
which  coition  was  instituted  has  been 
accomplished,  the  inward  longing  turns 
from  the  desire  for  sexual  embraces 
to  the  duty  of  giving  a  grateful  recep- 
tion to  the  life  which  has  begun  to  be 
formed  within,  and  the  entire  nature 
undergoes  such  physical  changes  as  is 
suited  to  nourish  and  develop  the 
body  of  the  growing  child,  preparatory 
to  its  entrance  into  the  outer  world. 
The  demands  upon  the  physical  re- 
sources of  the  mother  are  so  great  that 
the  bloom  and  color  are  likely  measur- 
ably to  depart  from  her  cheek,  and 
not  only  is  she  likely  to  be  devoid  of 
any  sexual  desire  for  the  approaches 
of  her  husband,  but  to  lose  even  the 
attractiveness  of  her  face  during  this 
period. 

Where  women  properly  regard  the 
ordinance  of  marriage,  and  recognize 


204  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

the  wisdom  of  the  divine  purpose  in 
the  establishment  of  the  home,  their 
children  are  each  in  turn  accorded  not 
only  a  kindty,  but  even  a  hearty  wel- 
come as  a  member  of  the  family  circle. 
When  such  women  lose  something  of 
their  sexual  attractiveness,  they  still 
are  most  interesting,  and  while  in  the 
execution  of  the  high  and  holy  func- 
tion which  God  has  assigned  them, 
they  are  worthy  of,  and  we  believe 
generally  receive  the  most  profound 
homage  of  all  pure  minded  and  right 
thinking  men.  It  is  during  these  months 
that  they  deserve  the  most  thought- 
ful and  considerate  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  their  husbands,  and  at  such 
time  no  husband  can  overstep  his 
duty  by  bestowing  upon  his  wife  his 
most  considerate  attention,  loving  ex- 
pressions of  affection  and  acceptable 
gifts. 

There  are  women,  however,  bv  whom 
maternity  is  regarded  as  a  great  afflic- 
tion. They  have  entered  marriage 
with  a  desire  to  ignore  its  primitive 
purpose,  to  escape  its  responsibilities, 


MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  205 

and  to  pass  through  life  without  bear- 
ing children.  "When  such  women  find 
themselves  expectant  mothers,  they  are 
oftentimes  transformed  into  veritable 
tartars.  They  become  not  only  sex- 
ually unattractive,  but  household  ter- 
rors. We  have  known  some  homes  to 
be  converted  into  perfect  pandemo- 
niums, and  the  husband  to  spend  a 
year  or  more  in  the  greatest  possible 
unhappiness.  It  is  scarcely  necessary 
to  say  that  the  woman  who  is  capable 
of  child  bearing,  but  who  enters  into 
marriage  and  then  refuses  to  become 
a  mother,  ought  never  to  have  mar- 
ried. The  woman  who  prostitutes  her- 
self to  different  men  for  varying  con- 
siderations, is  not  much  worse  than 
the  woman  who  sells  herself  to  one 
man  with  the  distinct  understanding 
that  she  is  to  be  to  him  nothing  but  a 
personal  or  private  prostitute  so  long 
as  she  lives,  and  all  this  in  considera- 
tion of  food,  clothing,  a  home  and  the 
semblances  of  wifehood. 

While  there  are  women  who  receive 
the  embraces  of  their  husband  during 


206  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

the  period  of  gestation  without  reluc- 
tance and  even  with  more  than  usual 
willingness,  this  condition  will  be 
found  to  exist,  not  because  they  would 
naturally  seek  it  at  that  time,  but  be- 
cause the  fear  of  conception  is  no 
longer  present,  and  consequently  they 
wantonly  abandon  themselves  to  the 
sexual  relation  with  the  thought,  that 
"  the  worst  has  already  taken  place," 
and  that  therefore  they  have  nothing 
further  to  fear. 

With  the  most  of  women,  however, 
nature  demands  an  undisturbed  mater- 
nity, and  the  conduct  and  bearing  of 
the  wife  is  in  harmony  with  the  best 
interests  of  the  unfolding  life  and  the 
groAving  body  within  her. 

Keeping  reproduction  in  mind  as 
the  great  primal  purpose  of  marriage, 
it  will  not  be  so  difficult  to  under- 
stand the  greatest  of  the  three  re- 
pellent periods  in  the  life  of  women, 
namely,  that  which  occurs  when  she 
attains,  because  of  advancing  years,  to 
her  exemption  from  further  child  bear- 
ing. 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  207 

It  is  at  this  period  of  life  that  her 
reproductive  nature  passes  into  a  period 
of  quiescence  and  repose.  In  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  changes  which 
attend  upon  and  follow  this  transition 
period  most  women  pass  through  a 
period  of  stress  and  trial,  a  time  of 
nervous  and  mental  disturbance,  which 
render  her  somewhat  of  a  burden  to  her- 
self and  unattractive  and  even  uncom- 
panionable to  those  by  whom  she  is 
surrounded.  During  the  years  which 
have  preceded,  her  sexual  attractive- 
ness was  intended  to  contribute  to  the 
furthering  of  the  great  purpose  of 
marriage.  But  now,  that  reproduc- 
tion is  no  longer  to  take  place,  it  is 
essential  for  her  physical  well-being 
that  a  period  of  sexual  repose  should 
be  secured.  To  this  end  God  now 
makes  her  less  attractive,  and  her 
manner  and  bearing  consequently  be- 
come such  as  to  render  her  repellent 
to  the  sexual  approaches  of  her  mate. 
This  is  done  not  only  for  her  own  good, 
but  if  her  husband  is  of  companionable 
age,  it  is  intended  to  contribute  to  his 


208  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

physical    and    intellectual    benefit  as 
well. 

What  the  nature,  extent  and  mani- 
festations of  these  changes  are  will 
appear  in  the  subsequent  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

CHANGE   OF   LIFE   IN   WOMAN. 

Two  Great  Changes  in  the  Physical  Life  of  Woman. 
— The  Menopause  or  "Change  of  Life." — Re- 
garded with  Apprehension.— The  Menopause 
Often  Brings  Blessings.— Conserves  Physical 
Powers  for  Good  of  Individual. — Husband  and 
Wife  Complemented  Part  of  Complete  Reproduc- 
tive Unit. — Both  Parts  Change  at  Correspond- 
ing Period. — Disappearance  of  Menstruation 
Only  an  Outward  Manifestation.— Changes  in 
Function  of  the  Ovaries.— The  Menstrual 
Phenomenon  Explained  and  Illustrated.— The 
Reason  for  Its  Cessation  Made  Plain.— The  Age 
at  which  the  "Change  of  Life,"  may  be  Ex- 
pected. 

The  two  most  important  changes  in 
the  life  of  woman  occur,  the  first,  when 
her  periodic  menstrual  flow  begins, 
and  the  second,  when  she  reaches  the 
menopause,  or  the  period  when  the 
menstrual  manifestation  ceases.  This 
latter  period  is  generally  known  among 
women  as  the  period  of  "  a  change  of 
14  209 


210  31  AN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

life."  It  is  also  called  the  menopause, 
which  signifies  the  pausing  or  ceasing 
of  the  menstrual  or  monthly  flow.  It 
is  also  called  the  "  climacteric  "  period, 
indicating  that  period  of  life  when, 
like  the  traveller  who  has  attained  the 
summit  of  a  mountain  passes  beyond 
the  scenes  upon  which  his  eye  and 
thought  have  rested  in  the  ascent,  and 
now  looks  out  upon  the  scenes  which 
stretch  away  in  new  valleys  and  plains 
which  spread  out  before  him  as  he  be- 
gins to  descend  upon  the  opposite  side. 
The  word  climacteric  in  its  stricter  use 
refers  to  any  period  of  life  when  a 
climax  or  crisis  has  been  reached,  and 
generally  refers  to  those  periods  of 
seven  years  into  which  human  life 
seems  to  be  naturally  divided — infancy, 
childhood,  manhood,  maturity,  and  at 
forty-nine  the  climacteric  period  of 
man,  and  ten  times  seven,  "  the  allotted 
period  of  human  life."  However,  the 
word  climacteric  is  generally  under- 
stood to  refer  to  that  period  in  the 
lives  of  men  and  women,  when  they 
reach  middle  life,  and  when  the  power 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  211 

of  reproductive  energy  begins  to  di- 
minish, and  the  begetting  and  bearing 
of  children  ceases. 

Some  women  are  wont  to  regard  the 
period  which  follows  the  menopause 
with  reluctance  and  regret.  They  look 
upon  it  not  only  as  a  time  when  blush, 
and  bloom,  and  personal  attraction 
have  departed;  they  think  of  spec- 
tacles, and  caps,  and  knitting  ;  but  if  a 
woman  has  spent  her  earlier  years 
judiciously  and  wisely,  preserving  her 
health  and  strength,  acquiring  knowl- 
edge and  extending  her  influence,  she 
may  rightly  expect  a  long  period  of 
unimpaired  usefulness  and  of  undimin- 
ished happiness.  She  has  entered  upon 
a  period  when  love  will  glow  with  a 
purer  and  even  brighter  flame,  when 
with  unimpaired  energies  and  high  and 
holy  purposes,  when  liberated  from 
some  of  the  duties  and  obligations 
which  previously  rested  upon  her,  she 
may  go  forward  in  the  enjoyment  of 
happiness  and  in  the  attainment  of 
larger  usefulness  and  blessings. 

But  it  is  with  reference  to  the  period 


212  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

of  stress  and  weakness,  and  oftentimes 
of  trial,  which  become   the   cause  of 
anxious  solicitude,  that  we  now  write. 
The  readjustment  which  takes  place 
in   the  physical  life   of  men   and   of 
women  at  this  period  is  a  conservative 
process  of  nature  which  is  intended  to 
conserve  the  physical  and  intellectual 
powers  for  the  good  of  the  individual. 
That  these  changes  should  take  place 
at  about  a  corresponding  period  in  the 
life  of  the  husband  and  wife,  can  be 
readily  understood.  Husband  and  wife 
together   constitute   as   we   have  pre- 
viously  said,    one    complex    but   com- 
plete reproductive  unit.     They  are  like 
two  parts  of  one  and  the  same  machine, 
either  incomplete  without   the   other. 
In   some   animals    the  father  and  the 
mother  nature  are  united  in  the  same 
body.     It  is  easy  to  understand  how, 
in  such  instances,  both  natures  would 
not  only  respond  and  cooperate  during 
the  period  of  reproductive  activity,  but 
that  both  would  modify  and  change  at 
the  same  period  when  reproductive  ac- 
tivity should  cease. 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  213 

The  same  is  true  where  the  father 
and  the  mother  natures  are  separated, 
and  exist,  the  one  in  the  body  of  the 
father  and  the  other  in  the  body  of  the 
mother.  While  there  is  an  apparent 
duality,  there  is  yet  a  real  unity,  and 
that  these  changes  may  occur  in  the 
bodies  of  both  at  about  the  same  time, 
it  is  regarded  wise,  when  choosing  a 
mate,  that  the  husband,  in  most  in- 
stances at  least,  should  be  some  three  to 
five  years  older  than  his  wife. 

In  the  minds  of  most  women,  the 
period  of  change  of  life  is  associated 
with  the  thought  that  it  consists  simply 
of  a  cessation  of  the  monthly  flow. 
This,  however,  is  only  its  principal  out- 
ward manifestation.  Perhaps  the 
greater  change  and  that  which  results 
in  greater  physical  discomfort,  comes 
as  the  result  of  the  changes  which  take 
place  in  the  ovaries,  preparatory  to  the 
cessation  of  ovulation,  or  the  ripening 
of  the  egg  or  germ  of  human  life.  It 
is  the  period  when  the  germ-making 
power  terminates.  The  period  of  ovu- 
lation and  of  menstruation  do  not  coin- 


214  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

cide  in  all  instances ;  as  a  rule  women 
ovulate   and   menstruate   at  the  same 
time,    but   there   are    many   instances 
where  the  menstruation  takes  place  at 
one   period   and  the  ovulation  at  an- 
other.    Indeed,  the  nervous  strain,  and 
consequent    irritability,    in    such    in- 
stances is  usually  found  to  attend  the 
period   of  ovulation,  rather  than  that 
of    menstruation.     In    such   instances 
the  period  of  menstruation  is  attended 
with    no   sense   of   physical  depletion 
or  depression,  but  rather  the  reverse. 
Ovulation    may   and   oftentimes   does 
take  place  without  menstruation.    Con- 
ception   may     and    oftentimes     does 
occur  when  menstruation  has  not  reg- 
ularly  taken    place.      Such    instances 
are    frequent    during    the    period    of 
nursing ;     and    young    women    have 
conceived   and   borne  children   before 
ever    they     have    menstruated,     and 
elderly  women   have   been   known  to 
conceive   and   bear  children  after  the 
period    of   menstruation  has   entirely 
ceased.     And  so,  upon  the  other  hand, 
menstruation  may  occur  regularly  with 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  215 

women  who  have  never  conceived,  and 
there  are  instances  where  women  have 
continued  to  menstruate  even  after  the 
ovaries  have  been  removed.  These  in- 
stances, however,  are  exceptional,  for 
as  a  rule,  the  periods  of  ovulation  and 
menstruation  coincide. 

"Why  menstruation  should  cease  at 
middle  life,  when  ovulation  terminates, 
will  appear,  when  we  understand  what 
is  now  generally  accepted  by  the  lead- 
ing physicians  as  the  cause  of  the 
monthly  flow  in  woman.  At  regular 
intervals  throughout  the  child  bearing 
period  the  lining  of  the  uterus,  or 
womb,  undergoes  such  changes  as  are 
designed  to  prepare  the  womb  for  a 
favorable  reception  and  congenial  rest- 
ing-place for  the  ovum  after  it  has  been 
fertilized.  After  fertilization  the  ovum 
is  generally  received  into  a  fold  or 
cavity  of  the  mucous  coating  in  the 
upper  portion  of  the  womb,  which  is 
designed  to  form  its  nest,  or  home,  or 
cradle  during  its  period  of  growth  and 
development,  prior  to  its  entrance  upon 
an  independent  life  in  the  outer  world. 


216  3IAN    OF   FOETY-FIVE. 

This  change  and  preparation  of  the 
mucous  linings  of  the  womb  immedi- 
ately follows  the  period  of  the  men- 
strual flow.  If  conception  does  not 
take  place  during  the  couple  of  weeks 
which  follow,  nature  then  undertakes 
the  preparation  of  the  womb  for  the 
reception  of  the  next  ovum  which  is 
preparing  to  descend  from  the  ovary, 
through  the  fallopian  tube.  In  the 
accomplishment  of  this  work  there  is  a 
disintegration  or  change  in  the  mucous 
membrane  of  the  womb,  and  this  is  dis- 
charged with  an  attendant  flow  of 
blood  which  constituted  the  phenome- 
non of  menstruation. 

Dr.  DeWitt  G.  Wilcox,  in  an  article 
in  the  Philadelphia  Medical  Journal, 
describes  this  change  in  the  following 
graphic  language : 

"  It  is  a  well-known  physiological 
fact  that  the  uterus  undergoes  a  certain 
preparation  each  month  for  the  recep- 
tion of  the  ovum.  A  few  days  prior 
to  the  arrival  of  the  expected  guest 
that  organ  "cleans  house,"  and  adds 
new  interior  furnishings;  old  shreds  of 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  217 

membrane  are  cast  off  and  a  new  heavy 
lining   of   a   velvety  character,  richly 
supplied     with     blood-connections,    is 
formed  in  the  upper  part  of  the  uter- 
ine cavity  ;  this  is  the  decidua.     If  the 
ovum   arrives   as  "  guest-in-ordinary  " 
(that  is  unimpregnated)  then  the  new 
furnishings  are  torn  down  and  cast  off, 
and  form  part  of  the  menstrual  flow. 
If,  however,  the  ovum  comes  as  a  royal 
guest  (impregnated  and  developed  up 
to  six  or  eight  days)  then  is  the  recep- 
tion made   befitting  the   guest.     The 
doors  and  windows  of  the  decidua  are 
closed  to  prevent  the  untimely  escape 
of  the  guest  or  intrusions  from  with- 
out.    Richer  blood-supply  is  added  and 
the  velvety  hangings  are  materially  in- 
creased in   thickness.     One  corner   of 
the  reception  hall  is  set  aside  for  the 
guest,    where   it   is   permanently    sta- 
tioned  and  nourishment  sumptuously 
provided.     This  guest,  the  ovum,  sends 
out  rootlets  or  villous  growths,  which 
ramify  into  the  decidua,  and  the  circu- 
lation   between   uterus   and   ovum   is 
established." 


218  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

From  the  above  facts  the  reason  for 
the  cessation  of  the  menstrual  flow 
readily  becomes  manifest.  The  period 
of  reproductive  life  has  been  com- 
pleted, no  more  ova  are  to  be  re- 
ceived into  the  womb,  and,  conse- 
quently, no  future  preparations  are  to 
be  made  for  their  reception,  retention 
and  development,  as  nature  designs  in 
all  cases  where  impregnation  takes 
place.  Great  physical  changes  conse- 
quently take  place  in  the  body  of  the 
woman  who  is  not  henceforth  to  be- 
come a  mother. 

Because  of  the  importance  of  the 
changes  which  attend  this  period,  many 
are  anxious  to  inquire  definitely  at 
what  period  they  occur.  The  age  at 
which  women  experience  these  changes 
differs  materially  in  some  instances ; 
but  as  a  general  rule,  it  may  be  said  to 
occur  in  this  country  at  from  forty -five 
to  fifty  years  of  age.  Instances  are 
not  unusual  where  women  pass  the  age 
of  fifty  before  they  notice  the  symp- 
toms which  attend  this  change.  There 
are   rare   instances   in   which   women 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  219 

have  attained  the  age  of  sixty,  before 
the  change  has  occurred. 

Upon  the  other  hand,  there  are  in- 
stances, and  they  are  not  scarce,  where 
the  change  has  taken  place  as  early  as 
thirty-five  years  of  age.  Dr.  T.  J. 
Patchen  narrates  the  incident  of  a  girl 
who  ceased  to  menstruate  at  twenty- 
two  years  of  age.  This  would  be  as 
exceptional  as  the  instance  where  a 
woman  retains  her  reproductive  power 
until  she  reaches  the  age  of  seventy. 
There  are,  however,  somewhat  frequent 
instances  where  women  change  as 
early  as  twenty-eight  and  thirty  years 
of  age. 

Some  physicians  multiply  by  two 
the  age  of  a  woman  at  the  time  when 
she  began  to  menstruate.  This  result 
indicates  the  length  of  the  period  of 
reproductive  activity.  The  age  at 
which  menstruation  began,  and  the 
years  of  reproductive  activity,  added 
together,  gives  the  age  at  which  the 
change  of  life  is  likely  to  occur.  Or, 
in  other  words,  the  menstrual  flow  is 
likely  to  continue  for  a  period  twice  as 


230  3IAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

long  as  the  number  of  years  which 
marked  the  age  of  the  person  at  the 
time  the  flow  began.  These  two  added 
together — or  three  times  the  age  of  the 
person  at  the  time  the  flow  began — in- 
dicates the  age  at  which  the  change  of 
life  is  likely  to  appear. 

This  rule  of  course  is  not  universally 
accurate,  because  much  depends  upon 
changed  physical  conditions,  and  even 
changes  in  material  circumstances 
which  may  greatly  affect  the  physical 
life  of  any  person. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

HOW  TO  MEET  THE  MENOPAUSE. 

Importance  of  Preparing  for  the  Menopause. — Not 
a  Period  of  Suffering  to  All. — Effects  Upon  Dif- 
ferent Temperaments. — Every  Woman  a  Law 
unto  Herself. — Importance  of  Occupation. — 
Freedom  from  Exacting  Demands. — Surround- 
ings.— Diet. — Effects  of  Stimulants. — Impor- 
tance of  Physical  Culture. — Constipation. — Fresh 
Air. — Deep  Breathing. — Relief  Secured  by  Self- 
Control. — Importance  of  Sexual  Repose. — Sex- 
ual Inclination  Diminishes  and  Eventually  Dis- 
appears.— Abnormal  Cases. — Duration  of  Stress 
at  Change  of  Life. 

While  all  women  do  not  suffer 
severely  at  the  climacteric  period  of 
life,  yet  it  is  important  that  all  should 
look  forward  to  it  and  make  such  prep- 
aration as  is  best  calculated  to  enable 
them  to  pass  this  period  with  the  great- 
est amount  of  comfort.  Where  local 
inflammations,  ulcerations  or  weakness 
exist,  as  far  as  possible,  the  disorder 
should  be  carefully  corrected,  so  that 

221 


222  31  AN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

it  may  not  influence  unfavorably  the 
transitions  and  changes  which  attend 
the  climacteric  period.  It  is  undoubt- 
edly true  that  previous  diseases  of  the 
womb,  miscarriages,  lacerations  at 
childbirth,  and  various  forms  of  female 
weakness  may  contribute  to  increased 
discomfort  at  this  period — yet  it  is  by 
no  means  correct  to  suppose  that  only 
those  who  have  suffered  in  these  ways 
will  now  experience  the  largest  discom- 
fort, or  be  the  longest  in  crossing  a 
troubled  sea  to  a  haven  of  physical 
quiet  and  mental  rest.  There  are  in- 
stances where  women  have  never  suf- 
fered from  any  of  these  causes,  have 
always  been  regular  in  their  physical 
manifestations,  and  yet  find  great  in- 
convenience at  the  period  of  the  change 
of  life. 

There  are  some  who  have  felt  justi- 
fied in  classifying  temperaments  and 
constitutions  as  indicating  the  liability 
of  different  persons  to  disease  and  suf- 
fering during  the  period  of  the  climac- 
teric. One  good  authority  upon  these 
subjects  says  :    "  Those  of  weak  consti- 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  223 

tutions  sometimes  fail  of  the  necessary 
stamina  to  carry  them  easily  through 
the  trials  of  this  transition  period.  It 
lias  been  remarked  that  the  lymphatic 
temperament  is  the  most  favorable  to 
an  easy  change.  Women  with  this 
temperament  suffer  less  from  nervous 
or  physical  disorders,  and  quickly  show 
signs  of  having  been  benefited  by  what 
has  occurred.  Those  of  a  sanguine  tem- 
perament are  more  liable  to  floodings 
and  to  its  symptoms ;  but  such  disor- 
ders with  them  usually  readily  yield  to 
treatment.  The  bilious  temperament 
predisposes  to  disorders  of  the  stom- 
ach and  liver  at  this  epoch ;  while 
the  union  of  the  nervous  with  the 
bilious  temperament  seems  to  predis- 
pose to  mental  diseases.  The  most 
suffering  at  this  time  of  life  is  expe- 
rienced by  women  of  a  nervous  tem- 
perament." 

While  the  above  statements  are 
measurably  true,  too  much  reliance 
may  be  placed  upon  such  classifications. 
It  would  be  safer  to  say  that  "every 
woman  is  a  law  unto  herself  "  at  this 


224  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

period  of  her  life.  The  experience  of 
one  cannot  be  taken  as  a  safe  index  to 
what  the  experience  of  another  will  be. 
It  is  probable  that  material  conditions 
have  quite  as  much  to  do  with  the  ex- 
perience of  each  person  at  this  period 
as  their  own  personal  temperament. 
The  poor  who  are  exposed  to  want  and 
undue  anxiety,  who  are  subjected  to 
severe  labor  for  prolonged  periods,  who 
are  deprived  of  the  necessary  rest  and 
diversion,  or  who  are  confined  in  close, 
damp  and  badly-ventilated  rooms,  are 
all  unfavorably  situated  to  meet  the 
stress  and  the  strain  of  this  period  of 
life.  Those  who  are  rich,  with  plenty  of 
time  and  money  at  command,  but  who 
have  sold  themselves  into  bondage  to  ex- 
acting social  obligations,  to  the  demands 
of  "  society,"  to  late  hours  and  injurious 
feastings,  are  likely  to  suffer  quite  as 
much  as  those  who  have  to  endure  pov- 
erty and  want. 

As  far  as  possible,  at  this  period  of 
life,  every  woman  should  have  some 
occupation  in  which  she  is  sufficiently 
interested,  so  as  to  engage  her  mind 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  225 

and  call  her  attention  from  herself. 
Moderate  home  and  other  duties  are 
not  a  disadvantage,  but  a  very  great 
blessing.  Many  a  woman  is  saved  at 
this  period  from  disastrous  mental  re- 
sults by  duties  which  call  her  from  her- 
self that  they  may  bestow  upon  her 
their  largest  blessings. 

But  while  occupations  of  mind  and 
of  body  are  beneficial,  women  at  this 
period  should  be  relieved  from  undue 
burdens  and  cares,  large  exaction  and 
all  sources  of  worry  and  excitement. 
Her  surroundings  should  be  made  as 
cheerful  as  possible,  and  all  sources  of 
annoyance  and  vexation  should  be  care- 
fully removed.  Interesting  books,  con- 
genial companionship,  and  occasional 
change  of  scene  with  suitable  diversion 
should  all  be  carefully  sought,  in  order 
that  nature  may  be  placed,  during  this 
period  of  stress,  amid  the  most  helpful 
surroundings. 

Special  attention  should  also  be  given 

to  the  matter  of  diet.     The  food  should 

be  wholesome  and  nourishing,  and  while 

it  should  be  adequate  in  quantity,  the 

15 


226  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

stomach  should  at  no  time  be  over- 
loaded. Stimulants  should  be  care- 
fully avoided,  and  where  close  attention 
is  given  to  the  subject,  it  will  be  found 
that  tea  and  coffee  only  tend  to  in- 
creased nervousness  and  to  interrupted 
sleep  and  rest.  Bitters  and  stimulants 
should  be  wholly  avoided. 

Where  the  digestion  is  defective  and 
the  appetite  capricious,  and  the  feeling 
of  weakness  or  languor  induces  the 
patient  to  desire  a  stimulant,  or  where 
the  food  is  not  relished  at  the  regular 
meals,  a  cup  of  cocoa,  a  glass  of  milk 
with  the  white  of  an  egg  beaten  in  it, 
a  cup  of  broth,  or  of  beef  tea  may  be 
taken  with  advantage  between  meals. 
"  Bitters,"  "  tonics "  and  the  like  so 
often  taken  at  these  times  can  only  re- 
sult in  injury  and  should  be  carefully 
avoided. 

This  period  of  life  should  be  ap- 
proached with  careful  attention  to 
physical  culture.  Ten  or  fifteen  min- 
utes daily  devoted  to  light  gymnastics, 
dumb  bells,  exercisers,  or  some  means 
of  physical  culture,  immediately  after 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  227 

rising  in  the  morning,  and  continued 
through  the  years  which  lead  up  to 
the  period  of  change  of  life  will  work 
wonders  in  securing  relief  from  the 
weaknesses,  ills  and  aches  which  so 
frequently  attend  women  at  this 
period.  This  form  of  physical  culture 
should  also  be  continued  with  modera- 
tion during  the  period  of  the  climac- 
teric change.  Outdoor  exercises  of 
every  kind,  which  are  not  excessive,  a 
moderate  amount  of  walking,  carriage 
riding,  etc.,  will  be  found  beneficial, 
both  as  a  preparation  for  the  change, 
and  as  a  means  of  overcoming  the  ills 
when  they  are  confronted. 

Women  suffer  infinitely  more  than 
men  with  a  tendency  to  constipation 
throughout  their  entire  lives  ;  but  at  no 
period  is  it  more  prevalent  or  more  in- 
jurious in  its  effects  than  during  the 
period  of  change  of  life.  This  tend- 
ency can  be  largely  corrected  by  drink- 
ing a  glass  of  water  each  morning  upon 
rising,  or  at  least  a  half  hour  before 
sitting  down  to  breakfast ;  and  during 
the  day  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water 


228  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

should  be  taken  so  as  adequately  to 
flush  the  sewage  of  the  body,  both 
through  the  bowels  and  through  the 
kidneys.  Where  constipation  is  per- 
sistent, the  flushing  of  the  colon,  as  in- 
dicated in  a  previous  chapter,  will  be 
found  very  beneficial.  Care  should  be 
taken  to  hav«  the  water  of  the  proper 
temperature,  not  exceeding  one  hun- 
dred and  two  degrees  Fahrenheit,  and 
it  should  be  injected  slowly,  so  as  to 
occasion  no  pain  at  the  time  or  subse- 
quent griping.  Where  the  patient 
does  not  sleep  well,  the  rectional  injec- 
tion, suggested  in  a  preceding  chapter 
to  men  subject  to  enlarged  prostates, 
will  be  found  one  of  the  very  best 
means  of  emptying  the  lower  portion 
of  the  large  intestine,  giving  relief  from 
local  pressure,  and  inducing  a  sound 
and  healthful  rest  and  sleep. 

The  vaginal  douche  of  hot  water  at 
a  temperature  of  about  one  hundred 
and  ten  to  fifteen,  frequently  recom- 
mended by  physicians,  is  generally  re- 
garded as  good  treatment.  In  this 
matter,  however,  the  patient  should  at 


31 AN    OF   FORTY- FIVE.  229 

all  times  bo  guided  by  her  family 
physician. 

As  far  as  possible  the  room  should 
be  bright  and  sunny,  and  well  venti- 
lated at  all  times,  especially  during  the 
night.  The  air  should  not  only  be 
fresh,  but  it  should  be  received  into 
the  lungs  in  abundance.  In  order  to 
do  this,  it  is  important  that  the  body 
should  be  unrestricted  by  the  unnat- 
ural pressure  so  universally  inflicted 
upon  the  lungs  and  the  contents  of  the 
abdomen  by  the  cruel  and  destructive 
corset.  Nature  is  kind  in  all  her  in- 
tentions, and  is  anxious  to  heal  all  our 
maladies,  if  we  will  only  give  her  a 
fair  opportunity.  If,  on  the  earliest 
indications  of  the  change  of  life,  women 
would  only  pursue  a  course  in  harmony 
with  nature's  laws  and  demands,  all 
who  are  in  fair  health  at  the  time 
might  hope  to  pass  this  period  without 
disease,  and  largely  without  discomfort. 

At  no  period  in  a  woman's  life  can 
she  use  her  power  of  self-control  with 
better  results  to  herself  than  while 
passing    through    this    trying    ordeal. 


230  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

Then,  if  ever,  she  should  plant  her  foot 
firmly  and  refuse  to  yield,  by  permit- 
ting herself  to  give  way  to  dejection 
or  despondency,  or  to  permit  the  im- 
agination to  add  to  the  real  stresses  of 
the  climacteric  change.  Then,  if  ever, 
she  should  realize  that  the  physical  is 
largely  subjective  to  the  mental,  and 
that  her  physical  comfort  must  be  se- 
cured and  maintained  by  a  healthy 
mind.  Will  power,  properly  exer- 
cised, at  this  time,  will  be  more  benefi- 
cial than  all  the  medicines  and  diver- 
sions which  could  possibly  be  sug- 
gested. 

The  woman  who  approaches  the 
period  of  a  change  of  life  while  her 
husband  is  still  under  the  strain  of  a 
strong  sexual  passion,  is  surely  unfor- 
tunate, and,  if  he  is  unthoughtful  and 
not  given  to  a  spirit  of  great  self- 
denial,  she  is  likely  to  be  rendered 
truly  miserable.  Any  sexual  relation 
at  this  period  is  likely  to  result  inju- 
riously. If  the  husband  is  himself  pass- 
ing through  a  corresponding  change  in 
his  own  physical  life,  he  will  find  ab- 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  231 

solute  continence  not  only  desirable 
for  his  wife,  but  also  for  himself. 
Should  their  experiences  however  not 
coincide  in  this  matter,  duty  demands 
that  consideration  for  his  wife  should 
bind  him  to  the  most  thoughtful  and 
considerate  course  of  conduct. 

From  the  very  commencement  of 
the  period  of  change  of  life,  a  steady 
diminution  in  the  sexual  passion  of 
woman  is  generally  observed,  and  in  a 
few  years  at  most  after  this  period  the 
sexual  passion  quite  generally  wholly 
disappears.  There  are,  however,  ex- 
ceptional instances  in  which  the  reverse 
is  true.  In  occasional  instances,  with 
the  beginning  of  the  menopause,  the 
sexual  inclination  increases  in  intensitv 
and  sometimes  even  greatly  exceeds 
that  experienced  in  any  earlier  pe- 
riod of  life.  Such  a  condition  should 
always  be  regarded  with  apprehension, 
as  it  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  na- 
ture, and  may  safely  be  regarded  as 
indicating  that  there  is  something 
physically  wrong.  Such  a  condition 
usually  indicates  a  disease  which  may 


232  MAN   OF   FORTY- FIVE. 

be  looked  for  in  the  womb  or  ovaries, 
and  the  gratification  of  this  abnormal 
desire  would  only  tend  to  aggravate 
the  cause  of  which  this  desire  is  simply 
a  symptom.  In  all  such  instances 
early  medical  attention  should  be 
sought,  and  medical  advice  carefully 
followed.  If  medical  advice  is  not 
sought,  the  probabilities  are  that  coun- 
sel will  be  sought  and  help  asked  when 
it  is  too  late. 

It  is  only  natural  for  an  anxious 
husband  to  inquire  how  long  the 
stresses  of  the  climacteric  period  are 
likely  to  continue.  ISTo  universal  rule 
can  be  laid  down.  A  general  average 
of  about  two  and  a  half,  to  three  years, 
might  be  stated.  Many  women  count 
upon  giving  up  eight  or  ten  years  of 
the  best  portion  of  their  life  to  the 
trying  ordeal  of  this  transition  period. 
Six  and  eight  years  is  not  unusual,  and 
in  some  rare  instances  it  projects  itself 
over  a  period  of  ten  or  twelve  years. 
There  are  instances  where  the  change 
is  affected  in  the  brief  period  of  a  few 
months  or  even  weeks ;  and  there  are 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  233 

some  women  who  pass  the  climacteric 
period  scarcely  conscious  of  any  change 
having  taken  place  in  their  physical 
being.  It  is,  however,  regarded  by 
physicians  as  not  desirable  that  the 
change  should  be  accomplished  in  too 
brief  a  period,  as  such  change  is  more 
likely  to  be  followed  by  permanent 
physical  and  mental  conditions  which 
are  altogether  undesirable. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

MANIFESTATIONS   OF   THE   MENO- 
PAUSE. 

Menstrual  Manifestations. — Other  Manifestations 
Enumerated. — Mental  Composure  as  a  Means  of 
Relief. — Other  Means. — No  Grounds  for  Serious 
Apprehensions. — Mortality  of  Men  from  Forty 
to  Fifty  Greater  than  that  of  Women. — The 
Discomforts  not  All  Imaginary. — The  Many 
Ills  Which  Women  Suffer  at  the  Climacteric. — 
"  Queer  Feeling  in  the  Head." — Insomnia  and 
Mental  Depression. — Hysteria. — The  Many  De- 
mands upon  Husband  for  Patience  and  Sym- 
pathy.— Manifestations  of  Aversion  to  Husband. 
— Turning  Against  Her  Children  and  Best 
Friends. — Charging  Husband  as  Being  the 
Author  of  All  She  Suffers. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  name  the 
manifestations  which  might  be  relied 
upon  as  indicating  the  approach  of  the 
"  change  of  life "  in  any  given  case. 
There  are  likely  to  be  a  variety  of 
manifestations  dependent  upon  the 
temperament    and   physical   condition 

235 


236  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

of  the  patient ;  for  the  symptoms  in 
different  cases  do  not  follow  in  the 
same  order.  The  menstrual  manifes- 
tations are  not  always  the  first  to  make 
their  appearance,  but  changed  condi- 
tions in  this  respect  are  generally  in- 
dicative of  some  corresponding  change 
in  the  physical  condition.  When  the 
climacteric  period  of  life  is  reached  the 
menstrual  flow  may  suddenly  cease 
never  to  return ;  or  it  may  gradually 
become  irregular  with  varying  inter- 
vals of  greater  or  less  length.  In  some 
instances  the  flow  may  be  less  abun- 
dant than  usual,  while  at  other  times 
it  may  be  attended  with  such  profuse- 
ness  as  to  amount  almost  to  flooding.  In 
other  instances  symptoms  of  pregnancy 
may  seem  to  the  woman  herself  to  be 
so  pronounced,  that,  for  weeks  or  even 
months,  she  may  regard  herself  as  in 
an  expectant  condition. 

There  may  be  flushes  of  heat  fol- 
lowed by  chilliness,  palpitation  of  the 
heart,  pains  in  the  back  and  loins,  con- 
stipation or  diarrhea,  swelled  limbs  or 
enlargement   about  the  joints,  an  un- 


MAX   OF   FORTY- FIVE.  237 

usual  fullness  of  the  breasts,  headaches 
with  severe  heat,  or  burning  in  the  top 
of  the  head,  or  pain  as  if  there  were  a 
soreness  at  the  base  of  the  brain.  In 
some  instances  there  is  dimness  of 
vision,  with  specks  floating  before  the 
eyes,  dizziness,  a  sense  of  uncertainty 
in  walking,  loss  of  voice  with  or  with- 
out aching  at  the  base  of  the  tongue, 
sleeplessness,  strange  cravings,  a  sense 
of  oppressiveness  in  breathing,  symp- 
toms of  neuralgia,  and  not  infrequently 
of  hysteria  ;  sometimes  instead  of  flood- 
ing there  is  a  copious  bleeding  at  the 
nose,  and  in  some  instances  even  spit- 
ting of  blood. 

These  manifestations  need  not  be 
the  occasion  of  any  undue  alarm,  but 
it  is  generally  wise  to  place  the  woman 
under  the  care  of  a  competent  physi- 
cian, as  it  will  contribute  largely  to 
her  mental  composure,  which  is  very 
important  at  this  juncture  of  life. 
Many  of  these  manifestations  may  be 
measurably  modified  by  hygienic  care, 
proper  exercise  and  diversion,  and  most 
of  all  by  an  intelligent  understanding 


238  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

of  her  own  condition,  accompanied  by 
a  resolute  will. 

There  is  danger  at  this  period  that 
the  woman  will  become  undulv  de- 
pressed  and  apprehensive,  while  the 
fact  remains  that  there  is  seldom  serious 
danger,  the  conditions  calling  simply 
for  patient  endurance  while  nature 
is  accomplishing  its  transition  work. 
There  is  no  ground  for  the  popular 
opinion  that  the  period  of  the  change 
of  life  is  one  of  peculiar  danger  to 
woman.  The  mortality  tables  show 
that  between  the  ages  of  forty  and 
fifty  there  are  more  deaths  among 
males  than  among  females.  A  false 
conclusion,  however,  must  not  be 
drawn  from  this  fact.  Such  figures 
Avould  not  warrant  the  inference  that 
the  period  of  change  of  life  in  woman 
merits  little  or  no  attention.  The 
symptoms  attendant  upon  this  period 
are  sometimes  alarming,  sometimes 
painful,  and  often  entailing  sad  conse- 
quences, although  rarely  attended  with 
any  fatal  results. 

It  is  a  great  injustice  and  wrong  for 


31  AN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  239 

either  the  husband  or  for  the  physician 
to  aggravate  the  patient  by  ridiculing 
or  even  underestimating  the  nature  of 
her  ills.  The  discomforts  which  a 
woman  suffers  at  this  time  are  not  all 
imaginary,  and  the  physician  Avho  un- 
derestimates or  depreciates  these  dis- 
comforts and  sufferings  is  only  likely 
to  aggravate  a  condition  which  he  has 
been  called  to  relieve. 

Where  the  monthly  manifestation 
suddenly  disappears,  there  is  oftentimes 
consequent  alarm.  Such  fears,  how- 
ever, are  groundless,  if  the  other  func- 
tions are  normal  and  there  are  no 
serious  indications  of  a  deterioration 
of  health.  Should  the  flow  be  unusu- 
ally profuse,  amounting  to  flooding, 
and  should  it  seem  at  all  persistent,  it 
will  be  wise  to  consult  medical  aid,  as 
such  a  symptom  may  be  indicative  of 
unhealthy  conditions  in  the  interior  of 
the  womb  or  adjacent  parts. 

It  is  not  unusual  for  women  to  speak 
of  "  a  queer  feeling  in  the  head."  This 
is  sometimes  attended  with  a  sense  of 
uncertainty,  not  only  in  walking,  but 


240  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

it  sometimes  induces  women  to  express 
apprehension  concerning  their  own 
mental  condition.  In  connection  with 
this  symptom  it  is  important  to  say- 
that  all  this  may  be  the  result  of  a 
change  in  the  eyes,  which  has  so 
affected  the  vision,  as  to  render  the  use 
of  glasses  necessary.  Even  with  those 
who  are  accustomed  to  the  use  of  glasses 
there  is  need  of  frequent  changes  and 
adjustment  so  as  to  avoid  the  pecul- 
iar "  headaches "  which  defective  vi- 
sion causes  above  the  eyes  and  just  in 
front  of  the  temples.  Even  where  per- 
sons have  worn  glasses  for  years  and 
have  had  frequent  experiences  with 
this  peculiar  sort  of  headache,  it  often 
takes  a  month  or  t  wo  for  the  person  to 
determine  that  the  "  queer  feeling  in 
the  head"  is  not  occasioned  by  a 
mental,  but  by  a  physical  condition, 
and  that  this  physical  condition  is  due 
entirely  to  the  straining  of  the  eyes 
and  the  consequent  pain  in  the  over- 
strained nerves,  not  within  the  brain, 
but  without  and  just  beneath  the  sur- 
face upon  the  forehead.     In  all  cases 


MAN    OF   FORTY- FIVE.  211 

where  this  "  queer  feeling  in  the  head  " 
is  experienced  it  is  best,  first  of  all,  to 
consult  the  oculist.  Should  the  feeling 
complained  of  in  the  head  not  disap- 
pear after  the  glasses  have  been  ad- 
justed to  the  needs  of  the  eyes,  it  will 
then  be  time  enough  to  seek  relief 
from  a  condition  which  cannot  be  es- 
caped so  long  as  the  eyes  are  strained 
and  the  nerves  suffer  as  the  direct  re- 
sult. 

In  the  earlier  period  of  these  changes 
many  Avomen  suffer  with  insomnia, 
and  not  a  few  with  hysteria.  Waken- 
ing at  night  the  patient  may  be  given 
to  depressing  meditations  upon  the  loss 
of  youth,  the  coming  of  gray  hairs, 
the  disappearance  of  sexual  inclination 
and  the  dangers  of  the  climacteric 
period.  To  most  women  such  con- 
siderations are  depressing,  but  they 
cannot  be  considered  as  altogether 
abnormal.  In  other  instances  there 
are  clear  manifestations  of  hysteria. 
The  husband  may  awake  to  find  his 
wife  in  a  fit  of  utter  despondency,  and 
crying  as   if   her   heart  would  break. 

16 


212  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

His  efforts  to  comfort  or  console  are 
likely  to  be  wholly  fruitless,  if  not 
positively  aggravating  to  her.  At 
such  times  women  frequently  leave 
their  beds  and  steal  into  some  unoccu- 
pied room  and  cry  by  the  hour.  After 
the  husband  is  once  convinced  that  his 
presence  or  consolations  can  afford  no 
relief,  it  is  usually  well  for  him  to  allow 
his  wife  a  solitary  half -hour  or  an  hour, 
that  she  may  pour  out  her  deep  feeling 
in  unrestrained  tears.  Until  this  is 
done,  generally  nothing  can  afford  re- 
lief, or  put  the  patient  in  condition  to 
sleep. 

This  period,  during  which  the  patient 
is  liable  to  fits  of  depression,  hysteria 
and  tears  may  continue  for  months  or 
even  for  years.  While  such  conditions 
may  be  very  trying  to  the  husband,  he 
should  remember  that  it  is  still  more 
trying  to  his  wife.  If  he  thinks  the 
conditions  are  purely  imaginary,  he 
should  remember,  that  to  the  woman 
herself  they  are  nevertheless  real.  It 
is  plainly  his  duty,  under  the  direction 
of  a  wise  and  considerate  physician,  to 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  243 

display  the  utmost  patience  and  con- 
sideration at  all  times,  which  no  affec- 
tionate husband  can  properly  deny  to 
her  whom  he  loves.  Although  at  times, 
or  perhaps  almost  constantly  during 
this  period  she  may  be  unlovable  and 
unreasonable,  yet  this  does  not  relieve 
him  from  his  plain  and  manifest  duty. 
While  the  aches  and  ills,  real  and 
imaginary,  which  the  wife  suffers,  ren- 
der her  deserving  of  the  utmost  con- 
sideration, yet  we  are  free  to  admit 
that  the  continuous  and  prolonged  de- 
mands which  are  made  upon  the  pa- 
tience and  the  physical  endurance  of 
the  husband  also  render  him  a  subject 
for  commiseration  and  sympathy.  If 
he  could  reason  with  his  wife,  or  al- 
leviate her  condition  by  expressions  of 
sympathy  and  affection,  his  efforts 
would  have  their  due  recognition  and 
reward ;  but  instead  of  this,  all  his  ef- 
forts are  likely  to  be  not  only  ineffec- 
tual and  unappreciated,  but  even  unac- 
ceptable. The  wife  who  formerly  Avas 
affectionate  and  considerate,  is  likely 
now  to  manifest  an  aversion  for  him 


244  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

"which  is  in  strong  contrast  with  her 
previous  life  and  character.  These  are 
manifestations  which  grow  out  of  phys- 
ical conditions  which  the  husband 
should  bear  patiently  until  the  condi- 
tions have  changed. 

Where  there  are  serious  nervous  or 
mental  complications,  the  wife  may  not 
only  manifest  aversion  for  her  husband, 
but  may  even  treat  him  as  though  he 
were  her  greatest  earthly  enemy.  At 
times  she  may  also  turn  against  her 
children,  and  if  she  should  manifest  a 
desire  to  be  relieved  of  family  cares 
and  the  presence  of  her  husband  and 
children  for  a  period,  compliance  with 
her  desire  will  contribute  to  her  more 
speedy  return  to  a  normal  condition. 
A  few  days  of  absence  from  home  will 
arouse  the  mother-heart,  quicken  a  de- 
sire to  see  her  children  and  to  be  at  home 
again  with  her  husband  and  family. 

One  of  the  symptoms  which  so  gen- 
erally accompanies  this  period  of  change 
of  life  in  woman  is  her  tendency  to  re- 
gard her  condition  as  serious,  and  to 
blame  her  husband  as  the  author  of  all 


MAN   OF   FOETF-FIV&  215 

the  ills  which  she  now  suffers.  One 
characteristic  of  the  complaint  which 
she  now  makes,  is,  not  that  her  present 
condition  is  due  to  present  exactions, 
neglect  or  wrong,  but  she  will  place 
the  blame  in  the  years  which  have  pre- 
ceded. She  may  accuse  him  of  exact- 
ing sexual  demands,  charge  him  with 
having  neglected  her  and  her  children 
to  give  attention  to  business,  religious 
duties  or  social  exactions ;  she  may 
claim  that  her  present  state  is  the  re- 
sult of  conditions  attendant  upon  pov- 
erty, because  in  past  years  she  had  an 
undue  amount  of  household  care  and 
worry,  or  any  one  of  a  great  variety  of 
complaints  which  she  may  now  enter 
against  the  husband.  If,  however,  he 
is  at  the  present  time  kind  and  consid- 
erate, and  she  can  charge  him  with  no 
present  wrong,  her  persistent  repetition 
of  injustice,  inconsiderateness  and  ex- 
actions in  the  past,  will,  with  the  other 
attendant  symptoms,  be  an  almost  in- 
fallible evidence  that  the  woman  has 
entered  upon  the  period  of  a  change  of 
life. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

ATTENDANT  PHYSICAL  CHANGES. 

Change  in  Physical  Form  of  Woman  at  Menopause. 
— Tending  to  Masculine  Characteristics. — Cause 
of  Increase  in  Size  and  Weight. — Growth  of  Hair 
Upon  the  Face. — Modification  in  the  Voice. — Hot 
Flushes. — Hemorrhage. — Tumors  of  the  Womb. 
— Cancers  aud  Abnormal  Growths. — Their  Cause. 
— Diseases  of  the  Kidneys. — Symptoms  in  Fifty- 
two  Climacteric  Cases  Classified. — Changed  Con- 
dition of  Womb  and  Vagina. — Consequent 
Changes  in  Nervous  System. — Disappearance  of 
Sexual  Sensation  and  Desire. — Similar  Changes 
in  Men. — Desires  of  Husband  and  Wife  Harmon- 
ized.— The  Period  of  Physical  Change  the  Door- 
way to  a  Larger  Manhood  and  Womanhood. 

During  the  years  of  childhood  the 
physical  forms  of  boys  and  girls  are 
not  differentiated  to  that  degree  which 
is  observed  after  boys  have  passed  the 
years  of  puberty  and  girls  have  begun 
to  menstruate  and  have  entered  upon 
the  life  of  womanhood.  When  the  girl 
changes  to  a  woman  the  body  usually 
takes  on  an  increased  amount  of  fat 

247 


248  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

which  is  deposited  about  the  loins  and 
hips.  The  shoulders  of  the  boy  become 
broader,  his  chest  deeper,  his  voice 
stronger,  and  the  beard  begins  to  start 
upon  his  face. 

During  the  years  of  reproduction 
each  of  the  sexes  is  marked  by  its  own 
distinctive  characteristics.  When  the 
period  of  reproduction  is  passed  and 
the  climacteric  period  of  life  has  been 
attained,  there  are  again  numerous 
physical  changes.  Instead  of  assuming 
more  marked  sexual  characteristics, 
each  of  the  sexes  then  seems  to  tend 
measurably  to  assume  the  characteris- 
tics of  the  opposite  sex.  At  the  time 
of  the  change  of  life  in  women  there  is 
usually  a  visible  deposit  of  fatty  tissue 
on  the  lower  part  of  the  back  of  the 
neck.  These  accumulations  oftentimes 
become  distinct  prominences,  and  afford 
a  safe  index  to  the  period  of  the 
woman's  life.  The  legs  and  arms  lose 
their  roundness  of  outlines,  and  even 
where  they  do  not  grow  more  fatty, 
they  yet  increasingly  resemble  those  of 
the   opposite  sex.     The   breasts,   how- 


MAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  249 

ever,  do  not  partake  of  a  corresponding 
increase  in  size,  but  tend  to  become 
flat  and  hard.  This  is  occasioned  by 
the  change  in  the  substance  of  the 
glands,  which  loses  its  spongy  nature. 
The  abdomen  enlarges,  in  some  in- 
stances to  such  an  extent  as  to  lead  the 
wife,  in  the  absence  of  her  periodic 
sickness,  to  believe  that  she  is  again  to 
become  a  mother. 

The  cause  of  this  added  flesh  is  not 
difficult  to  understand  and  explain. 
From  fourteen  to  forty-five  years  of 
age,  or  generally  for  a  period  of  about 
thirty  years,  each  twenty-eighth  day 
the  normal  woman  usually  loses  from 
six  to  eight  ounces  of  blood.  When 
this  ceases,  at  middle  life,  the  blood 
which  was  previously  discharged  from 
the  body  contributes  its  share  to  the 
building  up  of  the  physical  tissue.  The 
same  tendency  is  seen  in  birds,  in 
poultry  yards  and  elsewhere  ;  with  the 
diminished  egg  production  there  comes 
an  increased  growth  and  weight  of  the 
body  of  the  bird.  Taking  six  ounces 
as  the  average  periodic  loss  of  women, 


250  MAN   OF   FORTY- FIVE. 

the  amount  of  blood  discharged  in 
thirty  years  would  amount  to  two  thou- 
sand three  hundred  and  forty  ounces, 
over  eighteen  gallons  or  nearly  half  a 
barrel. 

"With  these  physical  changes  there 
oftentimes  comes  a  manifest  tendency 
for  the  hair  upon  a  woman's  face  to 
increase  and  strengthen,  until  it  some- 
what resembles  the  beard  of  a  man. 
This,  however,  is  not  the  case,  except 
in  instances  where  there  has  been  a 
tendency  to  a  large  growth  of  hair 
during  the  earlier  years.  The  voice 
also  grows  less  musical  and  more  harsh, 
and  the  changes  both  in  men  and 
women  result  in  such  a  diminished 
sweetness  of  tone  as  eventually  leads 
to  pronouncing  the  voice  "  cracked." 
"Women  are  also  characterized  after 
this  period  with  a  stronger  mentality, 
and  men  with  less  zeal  and  fire,  accom- 
panied by  more  tender  thoughtfulness. 
"While  increasing  years  may  fit  them 
for  council,  because  of  their  increased 
caution,  yet  their  diminished  courage 
unfits  them  for  war. 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  251 

There  are  also  numerous  changes 
which  take  place  in  the  vital  organs 
throughout  the  entire  body  ;  but  these 
should  not  be  regarded  as  the  degen- 
erations of  age,  but  the  growth  of 
the  organism  has  been  completed  and 
nature  is  striking  a  balance  with  wise 
reference  to  the  needs  of  future 
economy. 

Among  the  distressing  symptoms 
which  may  appear,  and  from  which 
some  medical  authorities  state  that 
about  eight  per  cent,  of  women  suffer 
at  this  period  of  their  life  are  "hot 
flushes."  The  blood  vessels  about  the 
head  and  neck  seem  most  affected,  yet 
the  surface  of  the  entire  body  may 
share  the  temporary  disturbance.  The 
patient  may  complain  of  an  unusual 
heat  in  the  back  of  the  head  and  neck, 
and  this  may  continue  at  intervals  of 
hours  or  longer  for  a  considerable 
period. 

The  flushings,  or  flashes  of  heat, 
come  rather  suddenly,  as  of  a  rush  of 
blood  to  the  head,  which  may.  extend 
also  to  the  arms  and  legs  and  entire 


252  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

trunk  of  the  body.  The  woman  feels 
a  decided  glow  of  heat  as  if  transported 
into  a  very  hot  room.  Perspiration, 
more  or  less  profuse,  may  follow,  and 
even  terminate  in  a  chill ;  or  the  chill 
may  come  first  and  be  followed  by  the 
hot  flush. 

These  sudden  flushings  may  occur 
during  the  day  or  night,  and  may  even 
precede  each  other  at  short  intervals. 
They  are  frequently  attended  with 
very  profuse  perspiration,  and  some- 
times with  a  sense  of  suffocation  or 
violent  throbbing.  They  may  also 
sometimes  be  accompanied  by  nausea 
and  vomiting.  They  are  often  pro- 
duced by  the  drinking  of  liquors,  tea 
and  coffee,  or  even  by  eating  stimulat- 
ing food.  They  are  also  the  result  of 
sudden  emotion,  such  as  fright,  anger, 
grief,  or  unusual  anxiety. 

One  of  the  symptoms  which  usually 
causes  the  greatest  alarm  among 
women  at  the  menopause  is  hemor- 
rhage. This  may  be  due  to  general 
or  local  causes,  but  unless  it  is  ex- 
cessive,  it   need   not    be  the  occasion 


31  AN    OF    FO ETV- FIVE.  253 

for  any  serious  anxiety.  If,  however, 
the  amount  seems  excessive,  medical 
attention  should  be  secured,  so  that  its 
cause  may  be  determined  and  the  best 
remedies  applied.  As  there  are  vari- 
ous causes  which  might  lead  to  such 
a  condition,  medical  experience  and 
skill  will  be  best  qualified  to  determine 
both  the  cause  and  the  treatment. 

At  the  time  of  middle  life,  more 
than  at  any  other  period,  various 
tumors  of  the  womb,  such  as  fibroids 
and  cancers  are  liable  to  appear.  Can- 
cers, however,  are  not  so  likely  to 
occur,  except  in  instances  where  the 
womb  has  been  lacerated  at  child- 
birth, and  the  injury  has  not  been 
properly  repaired. 

The  fibroid  tumor  may  be  one 
among  many  causes  of  excessive  hem- 
orrhage. As  we  have  already  said, 
such  cases  should  receive  careful  med- 
ical attention  ;  but  they  need  not  al- 
ways be  the  occasion  of  any  serious 
alarm.  They  usually  yield  to  proper 
treatment,  and  sometimes  even  disap- 
pear of  themselves.     Where  they  have 


254  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

previously  existed,  they  sometimes 
choose  the  period  of  menopause  as  the 
time  for  their  departure,  but  in  some 
instances,  however,  this  period  of  life 
affords  them  an  opportunity  for  more 
rapid  growth  and  the  occasion  for  more 
serious  consideration. 

Among  the  other  forms  of  morbid 
growths  may  be  mentioned  the  poly- 
pus and  various  small  growths  known 
as  "  vegetation."  In  the  hands  of  an 
intelligent  physician  none  of  these 
need  be  the  occasion  of  serious  anxiety 
to  the  patient. 

Perhaps  the  malady  most  generally 
feared  among  women  of  middle  life, 
and  not  without  just  cause,  is  cancer. 
This  is  more  prevalent  among  those 
who  are  married  and  have  become 
mothers,  than  among  the  unmarried. 
The  difficulty  is  likely  to  localize  it- 
self either  in  the  womb  or  in  the 
breast.  Medical  authorities  assert  that 
the  provoking  cause  of  this  malady  in 
many  instances  is  premature  labor,  un- 
natural abortion,  or  lacerations  of  the 
womb    at    childbirth.        Where    this 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  255 

growth  is  located  in  the  breast,  its  be- 
ginning is  likely  to  be  determined  by 
previous  injuries  received  during  the 
period  of  nursing  or  a  bruise  subse- 
quently inflicted. 

By  some  it  has  been  thought  tbat 
these  growths  have  their  origin  in 
physical  pain,  mental  suffering,  an- 
guish or  grief.  For  this  reason  a  few 
physicians  have  thought  that  cancer 
should  be  classed  among  nervous  dis- 
eases. When  a  tumor  or  ulcer  appears, 
a  competent  physician  will  be  best 
qualified  to  determine  whether  it  is 
cancerous  or  not.  Where  such  a  con- 
dition exists  it  is  best  that  no  time 
should  be  lost  in  such  treatment  as 
will  preserve  the  surrounding  tissue 
from  the  infection  and  the  spread  of 
the  disease. 

Diseases  of  the  kidneys  are  more 
likely  to  occur  after  the  period  of  mid- 
dle life,  than  before ;  and  due  atten- 
tion should  be  given  to  this  subject, 
both  by  men  and  women  by  means  of 
a  periodic  examination  of  the  urine,  so 
that   where   such   disorder   exists,   its 


256  3IAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

early  discovery  may  afford  a  more 
certain  correction. 

In  the  current  number  of  the  Amer- 
ican Gynaecological  and  Obstetrical 
Journal,  Anna  M.  Galbraith,  M.  D.,  of 
New  York,  in  a  list  of  fifty-two  cases 
of  women  who  had  passed  the  meno- 
pause states  that  five  had  never  suf- 
fered the  slightest  inconvenience.  "  Of 
these,  one  was  single  and  only  one  had 
had  one  miscarriage,  ten  had  suffered 
at  the  time  of  the  menopause  from 
malaise,  but  not  sufficiently  to  call  in 
a  medical  attendant,  thirty-seven  were 
more  or  less  seriously  ill,  thirty  of 
these  needed  local  as  well  as  constitu- 
tional treatment,  and  seven  constitu- 
tional treatment  only." 

The  prominent  symptoms  of  the 
climacteric  in  this  list  of  fifty-two 
cases  were  as  follows : 

Marked  debility,  24 ;  intense  nerv- 
ousness, 31 ;  neurasthenia,  9  ;  melan- 
cholia, 10  ;  headache,  14;  neuralgia,  6  ; 
hysteria,  1 ;  irritable  heart,  11 ;  tachy- 
cardia, 8  ;  insomnia,  19  ;  indigestion, 
32 ;  constipation,  28  ;  diarrhea,  3 ;  leu- 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  257 

corrhcea,  38 ;  rheumatism,  21 ;  gout,  1 ; 
Bright's  disease,  12  ;  hemorrhage,  6 ; 
alcoholism,  2 ;  corpulency,  2. 

But  there  are  natural  physical 
changes  which  are  common  to  all 
women  at  this  period  and  which  are 
of  special  interest  and  important  to 
thoughtful  and  considerate  husbands. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  menopause 
period,  because  of  the  increased  flow  of 
blood,  due  to  local  and  temporary 
causes,  the  size  of  the  uterus  or  womb 
frequently  enlarges,  but  later  it  grad- 
ually diminishes  in  size,  the  walls  be- 
come thinner;  and  the  vagina  also 
undergoes  similar  changes.  The  cer- 
vix, or  neck  of  the  womb,  becomes 
shorter  and  thinner,  sometimes  harder, 
and  in  other  instances  flabby  as  a  mem- 
brane. In  some  instances  the  upper 
part  of  the  vagina  is  so  much  con- 
tracted as  to  produce  folds  closely 
resembling  those  which  under  other 
conditions  attend  inflammation  about 
the  neck  of  the  womb. 

The  entire  reproductive  system  un- 
dergoes    corresponding     changes     in 
17 


258  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

which  the  nerve  centres  sympathize, 
and  after  a  given  period  of  longer  or 
shorter  duration  the  nerves  fail  to 
respond  to  sexual  sensations  and  the 
desire  for  the  sexual  relation  entirely 
disappears.  Generally  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  period  of  change  of 
life,  there  is  a  gradual  diminution  of 
the  sexual  passion  which  eventually 
entirely  disappears. 

This  atrophy,  or  diminution  in  the 
size  of  the  reproductive  organs  of 
women  finds  a  somewhat  similar 
change  in  the  reproductive  organs  of 
men  at  the  corresponding  period  of 
their  physical  change ;  and  where  the 
husband  is  intelligent,  and  judicious  in 
the  preservation  of  his  own  strength 
and  is  desirous  of  preserving  his  phys- 
ical and  mental  vigor  to  advanced 
years,  his  sexual  inclinations  are  likely 
to  be  sympathetic  with  the  new  condi- 
tions upon  which  the  wife  has  entered. 

Where  husband  and  wife  are  equally 
mated,  God  has  beneficently  harmonized 
all  the  desires,  aspirations  and  inclina- 
tions, and  no  apprehension  or  fear  need 


MAN   OF   FORTY- FIVE.  259 

be  entertained  concerning  difference 
of  desire  or  inclination  during  the 
years  after  the  period  of  the  meno- 
pause. Where  both  are  actuated  by 
thoughtful  consideration,  the  happiness 
and  the  comfort  of  each  will  be  the 
sole  purpose  and  desire  of  the  other. 

According  to  the  intention  of  nature, 
the  period  of  physical  change,  both  in 
men  and  women,  is  but  the  opening  of 
the  doorway  into  a  larger  manhood 
and  womanhood,  with  enlarged  oppor- 
tunities and  possibilities  of  usefulness 
and  blessing.  That  same  infinite  wis- 
dom and  tender  love  which  have  char- 
acterized the  life  and  experience  of  the 
earlier  years  will  continue  to  be  un- 
folded and  discovered  in  larger  meas- 
ure as  each  succeeding  year  brings  its 
quota  of  experience  and  preparation 
for  that  larger  life  which  is  beyond. 
"When  the  traveller  with  his  face  to- 
wards the  crimson  glories  of  the  de- 
clining day  recognizes  the  fact  that  the 
hours  of  his  toil  and  pilgrimage  are 
only  closing  upon  the  earth  so  that 
they    may    open    in    heaven    in    the 


260  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

morning  of  eternal  joy  and  splen- 
dor and  blessings,  he  can  go  cheer- 
fully forward  being  filled  with  faith 
and  confidence. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

MENTAL      MANIFESTATIONS      DURING 
THE   MENOPAUSE   PERIOD. 

Effect  of  the  Menopause  Upon  the  Mind. — Loss 
of  Interest,  Increased  Irritability. — The  Woman 
Becomes  Suspicious  of  Herself  and  Others. — 
Effect  Upon  the  Imagination  and  the  Moral 
Nature. — A  Case  Before  a  Class  of  Medical  Stu- 
dents.— How  They  Perplex  Their  Pastors. — 
Symptoms  of  Moral  Depravity. — Need  of  Intel- 
ligence Upon  Part  of  Husband  and  Others. — 
The  Gentle  Woman  Transformed  Into  a  Terror. 
— Arrays  Herself  Against  Husband  and  Best 
Friends. — Dissatisfied  with  Everything. — The 
Period  When  Families  go  to  Pieces. — Insanity 
Among  Men  and  Women  at  Climacteric. — 
Views  of  Medical  Authority. — Character  of  Hos- 
pitals for  Mental  Sickness. 

The  physical  changes  which  take 
place  during  the  period  of  the  meno- 
pause oftentimes  have  their  serious 
effects,  not  only  upon  the  nerves,  but 
upon  the  mental  condition  also.  In 
order  that  a  man  at  middle  life  may 

261 


2G2  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

the  better  understand  his  wife  and  con- 
sequently be  the  better  situated  to 
sympathize  with  her,  and  also  fore- 
know some  of  the  perplexities  into 
which  her  condition  may  plunge  him, 
it  is  important  that  he  should  know 
how  women  are  liable  to  be  affected 
mentally  at  this  period  of  their  life. 

While,  as  we  have  already  said, 
there  are  some  women  who  pass  the 
period  of  menopause  scarcely  being 
conscious  that  any  physical  changes 
have  taken  place,  and  never  having 
suffered  any  serious  nervous  or  men- 
tal trouble,  the  great  majority  of  them 
do  not  enjoy  the  exemption  which 
comes  with  this  more  favored  condi- 
tion. There  are  very  few  women  who 
do  not  measurably  lose  their  interest 
in  the  affairs  of  daily  life,  become  irri- 
table, cross,  unreasonable,  and  even 
uncompanionable.  Many  who  would 
not  be  suspected,  by  those  who  meet 
them  only  socially  or  casually,  as  being 
at  all  affected  b}^  the  changes  through 
which  they  are  passing,  may  neverthe- 
less exhibit  to  the  members  of  their 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  2G3 

own  family  evidences  of  melancholia 
and  insanity  which  awaken  grave  ap- 
prehension. 

It  is  not  unusual  for  the  physical 
changes  which  take  place  to  react  and 
cause  a  nervousness  which  renders  the 
patient  intensely  uncomfortable,  and 
which  she  finds  it  hard  to  bear.  When 
alone,  or  even  in  the  presence  of 
others,  she  may  clasp  her  hands  and 
cry  out  in  despair  that  she  is  "  unable 
to  bear  this  condition,  and  that  if  it 
continues  long  she  is  sure  she  will  lose 
her  mind."  She  indulges  in  mental 
vagaries,  loses  certainty  in  her  mental 
methods,  becomes  confused,  imagines 
that  she  is  suspicioned  and  watched. 
Society  is  apt  to  lose  its  attractiveness 
to  her,  but  solitude  is  even  more  unde- 
sirable, as  it  allows  her  an  opportunity 
for  dwelling  unduly  upon  real  or  im- 
aginary ills. 

If  her  nervous  system  seems  dis- 
turbed, she  fancies  that  she  is  not  able 
to  control  her  muscular  movements,  or 
to  walk  with  firmness,  and  that  she 
will  be  suspected  of  being  affected  by 


264  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

wine.  If  her  breasts  enlarge,  as  is 
often  the  case  at  this  period,  she  is 
likely  to  fancy  that  she  is  affected  with 
cancer,  and  she  pictures  herself  the 
prospective  heir  of  all  of  the  terrors  of 
this  dreadful  disease.  If  she  has  an 
attack  of  indigestion  and  the  heart 
palpitates  from  sympathy,  she  will  be 
sure  that  she  is  destined  to  drop  dead 
in  the  street. 

Her  moral  nature  is  likely  to  be 
sympathetic  and  to  be  affected  by  her 
nervous  and  mental  condition.  She 
may  be  seized  with  gloomy  depressions 
and  give  expression  to  doubts  concern- 
ing spiritual  things,  which  she  would 
never  before  have  entertained,  much 
less  have  expressed.  She  may  tem- 
porarily lose  her  interest  in  the  Church, 
in  her  Bible  and  even  in  her  private 
devotions.  She  becomes  fretful  and 
peevish,  and  annoys  those  around  her 
by  a  continued  repetition  of  her 
groundless  fears,  and  becomes  angry 
at  them  when  they  show  any  annoy- 
ance at  her  repetitions  of  what  they 
have  already  heard  a  hundred  times  or 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  2G5 

more — and  all  that  possibly  during  the 
same  day.  In  short  she  becomes 
gloomy,  despondent  and  wretched ; 
and  not  a  few  possess  the  power  to 
bring  the  entire  household  into  the 
same  wretched  condition.  { 

If  this  picture  seems  dark,  it  will 
nevertheless  be  recognized  by  many  as 
being  thoroughly  accurate.  Not  a 
few  husbands  have  been  amazed  to  find 
that  a  patient,  confiding  and  devoted 
wife  has  disappeared  and  that  her  place 
is  now  occupied  by  an  irritable,  un- 
reasonable, suspecting  and  threaten- 
ing woman.  Many  a  child  has  been 
hopelessly  perplexed  to  understand 
how  the  loving,  self-denying  and  de- 
voted mother  of  a  few  years  ago,  could 
be  transformed  into  the  creature  of  so 
much  petulance,  impatience  and  un- 
reasonableness. 

It  is  that  the  wife  may  understand 
herself,  and  that  the  husband  and  chil- 
dren may  comprehend  something  of 
the  nature  of  the  physical  changes  and 
the  attendant  nervous  and  mental  dis- 
turbance which  the  wife  and  mother 


266  MAN   OF   FORTY- FIVE. 

now  endures,  and  that  their  intelli- 
gence may  make  them  considerate,  pa- 
tient and  sympathetic,  that  we  have 
undertaken  in  these  chapters  to  set 
forth  her  real  condition. 

The  first  intimation  the  writer  ever 
had  of  the  conditions  which  manifest 
themselves  at  the  period  of  the  meno- 
pause— or  indeed  the  first  he  ever  knew 
that  women  experience  that  modifica- 
tion in  their  physical  nature  which  is 
known  as  a  change  of  life — was  when 
he  was  about  twenty-five  years  old.  He 
was  at  that  time  a  student  of  theology 
in  the  city  of  New  York  and  was  at- 
tending occasional  lectures  and  clinics 
at  the  medical  colleges.  At  these 
clinics  the  patient  is  treated  by  the 
lecturing  physician  before  the  entire 
body  of  students.  Some  two  or  three 
hundred  students  were  present.  A 
woman  having  some  aches  and  ills  pre- 
sented herself,  and  after  the  doctor  had 
received  what  he  regarded  as  satisfac- 
tory answers  to  several  of  his  questions, 
and  had  already  given  the  students  his 
mistaken   opinion  with   regard  to  the 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  2G7 

case,  he  concluded  that  before  dismiss- 
ing the  patient  he  would  make  a  local 
examination.  When  the  speculum  was 
withdrawn  and  the  sheet  Avhich  covered 
the  patient  during  the  examination  was 
removed  and  the  woman  sat  up  again, 
she  turned  to  the  doctor  and  inquired 
whether  he  found  anything  in  her 
womb.  Upon  being  assured  that  he 
did  not,  the  woman  said  that  her 
neighbors  had  been  reporting  that  she 
had  a  worm  in  her,  and  that  on  that 
account  she  had  decided  to  come  for 
examination  in  order  that  she  might 
convince  them  that  their  scandalous 
statements  were  not  true.  The  exam- 
ining physician  immediately  discovered 
that  he  had  a  case  of  mental  disturb- 
ance, occasioned  by  the  menopause. 
He  was  chagrined  because  of  his  mis- 
taken diagnosis,  and  told  his  students 
that  they  should  never  do  as  he  had 
just  done,  give  an  opinion  before  they 
had  made  a  thorough  examination. 
He  then  described  some  of  the  mental 
disturbances  which  attend  the  meno- 
pause and  said  that  women  during  this 


268  3IAN   OF  FORTY-FIVE. 

period  oftentimes  become  a  perplexity, 
not  only  to  their  families  and  their 
physicians,  but  even  to  their  pastors. 
He  said  that  sometimes  a  woman 
whose  previous  life  has  been  devout 
and  godly,  at  this  period  of  her  life 
may  become  disturbed  concerning  her 
spiritual  condition  and  may  fancy  that 
she  has  committed  the  unpardonable 
sin,  or  that  she  is  to  be  eternally 
damned.  In  this  state  of  mental 
anxiety  she  may  go  to  her  pastor  for 
counsel  and  comfort.  All  of  his  talk- 
ing, reasoning,  sympathizing  and  pray- 
ing will  be  unavailing,  and  if  ignorant 
of  the  real  cause  of  the  woman's 
mental  condition  he  will  be  left  in 
great  perplexity.  He  said  that  what 
the  woman  wanted  at  that  period,  for 
her  comfort  and  well-being,  was  that 
there  should  be  intelligence  upon  the 
part  of  every  person  with  whom  she 
came  in  contact. 

It  might  not  be  out  of  place  in  this 
connection  also  to  say,  that  not  only 
do  the  mental  and  moral  natures  mani- 
fest great  disturbance  and  even  deteri- 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  269 

oration,  but  where  there  are  diseased 
local  conditions,  or  instances  of  acute 
local  irritation,  women  whose  lives  and 
speech  have  hitherto  been  without  re- 
proach, may  give  way  to  vulgar  speech 
and  startlingly  wanton  ways.  Such 
instances  call  for  prompt  medical  at- 
tention, and  the  most  charitable  con- 
sideration upon  the  part  of  all. 

It  is  a  matter  of  the  utmost  regret 
that  women  at  this  period,  when  they 
are  so  much  a  mystery  to  themselves, 
should  be  so  little  understood  by  those 
by  whom  they  are  surrounded.  Many 
a  poor  woman  who  has  struggled 
against  great  odds  all  her  life,  when 
she  comes  to  this  period  of  menopause, 
with  its  mysteries,  its  physical  aches 
and  ills,  with  its  nervousness  and  its 
disturbed  mental  condition,  has  also  to 
confront  the  ignorance  of  her  husband, 
and  receive  at  his  hands  not  only  a 
lack  of  thoughtfulness  and  consider- 
ation, but  oftentimes,  even  brutality 
and  cruelty.  She  may  be  provoking 
and  even  exasperating,  but  that  is  no 
reason  why  the   husband   should   not 


270  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

bring  to  the  situation  and  the  condi- 
tion that  intelligence  which  will  not 
only  enable  him  to  be  considerate  and 
thoughtful,  but  enable  his  wife  to  un- 
derstand herself  and  measurably  to 
modulate  her  speech  and  her  conduct 
by  an  intelligent  understanding  of  her 
own  real  condition. 

If  a  woman  who  has  been  the  em- 
bodiment of  thoughtfulness  and  affec- 
tion is  temporarily  transmuted  during 
the  period  of  this  change  and  becomes 
unreasonable  and  uncompanionable, 
even  to  those  whose  affections  she  has 
won  by  years  of  devotion,  what  should 
be  expected  at  such  a  time  of  stress 
from  a  woman  who  is  naturally  un- 
reasonable and  contrary?  If  the 
husband  of  the  former  needs  patience 
at  this  period,  what  shall  be  said  of 
the  husband  of  the  latter  ?  If  he  is  a 
farmer  and  in  the  winter  stops  for  a 
few  moments  at  the  stove,  his  wife  will 
say,  "What  are  you  sitting  around 
the  stove  for  ?  Get  up  and  stir  your 
stumps.  Go  out  and  go  to  work,  get 
your  blood  in  circulation  and  you  will 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  271 

not  be  cold."  If  he  is  at  work  out  of 
doors  she  screams  at  him  and  asks 
whether  he  wants  to  freeze  himself  to 
death — indoors  or  out  of  doors,  stand- 
ing or  sitting,  walking  or  riding,  work- 
ing or  resting,  night  or  day  and  all 
the  while,  he  is  the  target  for  reproof 
and  reproach. 

We  have  known  men  to  endure  such 
intolerable  conditions  for  years.  We 
have  known  them  to  suffer  with  seem- 
ing patience,  and  all  the  while  re- 
mained ignorant  of  the  causes  which 
have  rendered  life  intolerable,  just  at 
that  period,  when  their  own  mental 
and  physical  condition  seemed  to  de- 
mand, even  for  themselves,  a  larger 
measure  of  consideration  and  sym- 
pathy than  ever  before. 

I  was  one  day  passing  through  the 
railway  station  when  I  met  a  brother 
minister.  I  had  incidentally  learned 
of  the  stress  through  which  his  wife 
was  passing.  I  inquired  after  the 
health  of  his  wife,  expressed  my  s}^m- 
pathy  for  him,  and  then  enlarged 
somewhat  upon  the  conditions  which 


272  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

attend  so  many  women  at  this  period, 
and  what  their  husbands  are  called 
upon  to  suffer  because  of  conditions 
from  which  they  cannot  possibly 
escape.  I  saw  at  once  how  much  my 
friend  was  interested.  As  I  described 
what  I  knew  he  was  enduring  in  his 
own  home,  tears  started  in  his  eyes,  he 
took  my  hand  in  both  of  his,  and  look- 
ing me  in  the  face  he  said,  "  Why, 
brother  Stall,  you  are  the  first  man 
who  ever  spoke  to  me  upon  this  sub- 
ject. I  did  not  know  that  any  one 
else  on  earth  was  called  upon  to  en- 
dure what  I  am  suffering.  I  have 
never  told  anybody,  and  I  have  never 
before  talked  with  anybody  upon  this 
subject.  I  have  borne  this  unbearable 
burden  for  several  years,  and  I  cannot 
tell  you  how  much  you  have  comforted 
me  by  what  you  have  said.  I  now 
understand  the  situation,  and  I  can 
look  forward  with  hope,  expecting 
possible  deliverance  at  some  time  in 
the  future." 

This  good  brother,  who  was  more 
grateful   than   he  seemed  capable   of 


31  AN   OF   FORTY- FIVE.  273 

expressing,  was  only  one  of  thousands 
of  men,  intelligent  upon  other  subjects, 
but  who  are  wholly  uninformed  upon 
this. 

It  is  important  for  the  husband,  at 
this  period  in  the  life  of  his  wife,  to 
understand  that  should  there  be  any 
pronounced  mental  disturbance,  it  may 
manifest  itself  in  any  one  of  many 
directions.  We  have  known  the  wives 
of  some  of  the  most  devout  and  godly 
ministers  to  charge  them  with  being 
worldly  and  devoid  of  that  deep  spirit- 
uality which  has  always  characterized 
them  in  the  eyes  of  others.  We  have 
known  other  ministers  to  be  annoyed 
by  charges  of  just  the  opposite  kind. 
Their  wives  accused  them  of  "  walking 
on  earth  but  living  in  heaven,"  "of 
being  too  spiritually  minded  for  this 
world."  "While  neither  of  these  classes 
of  wives  may  do  more  than  threaten  to 
express  their  opinion  publicly,  yet  the 
repetition  of  their  irritating  charges, 
over  and  over  again,  da}r  after  day,  does 
not  tend  to  soothe  the  mind  and  bear- 
inn;  of  even  the  most  devoted  husband. 

18 


274  MAN   OF   FOETY-FIVE. 

The  wretched  and  unhappy  condi- 
tion of  some  women  during  this  period, 
renders  them  dissatisfied  with  every- 
thing upon  earth.  They  are  much 
under  a  spell  of  mental  depression  and 
bodily  unrest.  They  seek  for  them- 
selves those  conditions  which  they 
fancy  would  come  with  a  change  of 
residence  or  a  change  of  the  occupa- 
tion of  their  husbands.  But  they  may 
change  their  residences  again  and 
again,  only  to  have  their  wives  im- 
mediately discover  some  new  sources  of 
annoyance,  and  name  some  new  reasons 
to  justify  further  changes. 

At  this  period  in  a  woman's  life  her 
husband  should  do  everything  in  his 
power  to  adjust  himself  to  her  physical 
and  intellectual  needs ;  but  there  are 
many  instances  where  he  can  continue 
through  an  indefinite  series  of  readjust- 
ments without  securing  the  end  sought, 
namely,  the  satisfaction  of  his  wife. 
If  the  cause  is  subjective  and  mental, 
instead  of  objective  and  real,  perfect 
adjustment  cannot  possibly  be  ex- 
pected.    After    the    considerate    hus- 


MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE.  275 

band  has  done  all  ho  can,  his  wife  will 
still  continue  to  be  dissatisfied.  In 
such  instances  the  husband  must  use 
his  own  best  judgment  when  deciding 
what  course  to  be  pursued,  and  then, 
after  deciding  what  to  do,  abide  in  his 
decision. 

Where  there  is  a  tendency  to  a  pro- 
nounced disturbed  mental  condition, 
the  wife  may  for  a  period,  or  at  brief 
intervals,  turn  most  ungraciously  and 
even  fiercely  against,  not  only  her  own 
husband  and  her  own  children,  but 
even  against  her  own  parents,  and  her 
very  dearest  friends.  She  may  cut 
herself  off  from  companionship  and 
correspondence  with  those  who  have 
been  her  bosom  companions  all  her 
life.  She  may  give  expression  to  un- 
kind and  cruel  speech  and  manifest  an 
unkind  and  vindictive  spirit  such  as 
she  would  not  at  any  other  period  of 
her  life  for  one  moment  have  enter- 
tained. She  may  even  threaten  to 
ruin  her  husband  ;  or  the  mother  in- 
stincts may  temporarily  be  obliterated, 
and  she  may   manifest  an  uncontrol- 


276  MAN    OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

lable  desire  to  take  the  lives  of  her 
children. 

As  we  have  already  said,  these  are 
not  pleasing  pictures,  but  they  are,  in 
many  instances,  true  to  life. 

It  is  during  this  period  that  many 
families  which  have  been  held  together 
only  by  physical  considerations  go  to 
pieces.  If  ever  in  the  history  of  the 
family  there  needs  to  be  harmony  of 
purpose  and  intellectual,  social  and 
moral  attractions  to  hold  it  together  in 
a  time  of  storm  and  stress,  it  is  at  just 
such  a  period  as  this.  "Where  the  pre- 
ceding years  have  been  marked  by  true 
affection  and  personal  consideration, 
the  husband  will  find  great  satisfaction 
in  knowing  that  in  all  probability  the 
coming  months,  or  at  least  a  few  years, 
will  relieve  him  from  his  present  trials, 
and  bring  to  his  wife  that  composure 
and,  peace  which  are  even  greater  than 
anything  his  earlier  years  have  known. 

At  no  other  period  in  a  woman's 
life  is  she  so  liable  to  develop  indica- 
tions of  insanity  as  during  the  period 
of    climacteric    change.      Too    much 


3TAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  277 

importance,  however,  can  be  attached 
to  such  a  statement,  for  statistics  show 
that  between  the  ages  of  forty-five 
to  fifty-five,  more  men  become  insane 
than  women.  It  is  the  theory  of  phy- 
sicians that  as  a  rule,  the  climacteric 
period  simply  affords  the  occasion, 
rather  than  the  cause  of  insanity ; 
that  it  is  the  period  when  conditions 
which  have  previously  existed,  for  the 
first  time  become  clearly  disclosed. 
The  stress  and  trial,  it  is  believed  by 
many,  simply  make  manifest  weak- 
nesses which  have  previously  existed, 
but  may  not  have  attracted  particular 
notice. 

The  forms  of  climacteric  insanity 
are  :  "  Delirium,  mania,  hypochondria- 
sis, melancholia,  irresponsible  impulses, 
and  the  perversion  of  moral  instincts." 

At  this  period,  women  frequently 
speak  of  "  a  strange  feeling "  in  the 
head  which  they  experience ;  but  this 
cannot  be  taken  as  any  indication  of 
serious  mental  trouble.  This  is  only 
the  temporary  result  of  physical 
changes  which  are  taking  place.     Gen- 


278  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

uine  symptoms  of  insanity  are  quite 
another  matter. 

Dr.  John  B.  Chapin,  a  man  of  large 
experience  in  connection  with  his  pro- 
fessional  duties  at  the  Pennsylvania 
Hospital  for  the  Insane  at  Philadel- 
phia, in  an  article  in  one  of  the  current 
medical  journals  says  :  "  Clinical  expe- 
rience shows  that  the  risk  of  insanity 
at  the  menopause,  while  it  is  largely 
exaggerated,  is  limited  mainly  to  those 
who  have  a  neurotic  or  mental  hered- 
ity, and  who,  at  the  period  of  adoles- 
cence or  during  the  menstrual  life, 
have  had  attacks  of  insanity." 

He  further  says  that  "  both  sexes 
have  the  faculty  of  intelligence,  sensory 
endowments,  emotions,  will-power,  and 
memory.  It  is  the  change  from  the 
ordinary  and  normal  exercise  of  these 
faculties  which  may  arise  from  all  of 
the  experiences  of  life  that  constitute 
the  condition,  commonly  called  insan- 
ity. Aside  from  some  peculiarities 
that  are  characteristic  and  distinguish 
sex,  insanity  in  man  is  similar  to  in- 
sanity in  woman,  because  it  is  the  dis- 


31  AN   OF   FORTY- FIVE.  279 

orderly  action  of  mental  faculties  that 
are  common  to  both  sexes." 

He  also  states  that  insanity  is  gen- 
erally induced  by  some  lowered  condi- 
tion of  the  general  bodily  health,  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  the  blood  sent 
to  the  brain,  and  the  degeneration  pro- 
ceeding from  trophic  changes. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  how  the 
bodily  health  may  be  affected  by  the 
physical  changes  which  are  likely  to 
attend  the  climacteric  period.  The 
transition  from  the  menstrual  life, 
which  has  been  established  for  a  long 
period,  to  the  new  condition  of  the 
menopause  is  likely  to  be  attended  by 
changes  in  weight,  sympathetic  disturb- 
ances, groundless  fears,  and  even  man- 
ifestations of  an  unusual  character,  but 
these  need  not  of  necessity  arouse  se- 
rious apprehensions.  A  depleted 
physical  condition  at  any  other  period 
of  life,  caused  b}r  anxiety,  work,  worry 
or  disease,  would  be  likely  to  produce 
the  same  results.  If,  under  these  con- 
ditions, at  other  periods  of  life,  there 
are  no  reasons  to  fear  insanity,  then 


280  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

there  would  be  no  reason  under  similar 
conditions  to  fear  it  at  the  period  of 
the  menopause.  The  period  of  the 
menopause  is  not  an  abnormal,  or  an 
unnatural  period,  but  is  just  as  normal 
and  natural  as  the  climacteric  period 
at  the  beginning  of  the  menstrual  life 
of  woman.  Indeed,  the  statistics  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Hospital  for  the  In- 
sane show  that  between  the  ages  of 
fifteen  and  twenty,  embracing  the  pe- 
riod of  the  beginning  of  menstrual  life 
in  women  and  the  age  of  puberty  in 
men,  the  number  of  men  admitted  to 
the  hospital  is  slightly  in  excess  of  the 
number  of  women  admitted.  Between 
the  ages  of  forty-five  and  fifty-five, 
covering  the  usual  period  of  the  meno- 
pause, and  the  changes  which  take 
place  in  the  physical  life  of  man,  the 
number  of  men  and  women  admitted, 
to  the  hospital  is  as  nine  to  eight. 
This  shows  that  during  these  physical 
changes  in  the  lives  of  men  and 
women,  men  are  more  likely  to  be- 
come insane  than  women.  This  is  pos- 
sibly due  to  the  financial  stress,  busi- 


MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE.  281 

ness  anxieties,  and  various  conditions 
of  special  strain  and  perplexity  which 
are  often  experienced  by  men  during 
their  period  of  physical  change. 

We  have  been  thus  careful  in  pre- 
senting this  matter  so  as  to  remove 
groundless  apprehensions  of  impend- 
ing calamity  at  the  period  of  the  meno- 
pause in  woman.  The  stress  and  strain 
which  accompany  this  period  in  the 
lives  of  most  women  are  attended  with 
sufficient  real  and  imaginary  ills  ;  it  is 
therefore  important  that  to  these 
should  not  be  added  any  unnecessary 
anxieties  concerning  disturbed  mental 
results.  Dr.  Chapin  claims  that 
"  there  is  no  sufficient  clinical  experi- 
ence to  warrant  the  recognition  of  a 
distinct  class  of  insanities  as  due  to  the 
normal  ending  of  an  animal  function 
that  is  universal."  It  is  therefore  wise 
that  there  should  be  such  a  dissemina- 
tion of  these  facts  as  will  tend  to  re- 
move the  unfounded  anxieties  and 
worries  which  attend  so  many  women 
as  they  look  forward  to  and  as  they 
approach  this  period  of  their  lives. 


282  31  AN   OF  FOB  TV- FIVE. 

Where  there  are  hereditary  tenden- 
cies, or  where  there  are  marked  indi- 
cations of  insanity  like  deceit,  cunning, 
lying,  violence  and  a  tendency  to 
commit  suicide  or  murder,  or  where 
other  decidedly  disturbed  mental  con- 
ditions manifest  themselves,  the  case 
will  require  the  utmost  consideration 
and  patience.  No  family  would  desire 
to  remove  one  of  its  members  to  an  in- 
stitution for  the  insane,  so  long  as  they 
were  tractable,  were  willing  to  take 
their  medicine,  and  submitted  to  treat- 
ment designed  to  restore  them  to 
mental  health. 

The  ideas,  however,  which  many 
people  entertain  with  regard  to  the 
character  of  hospitals  for  the  treatment 
of  the  insane  are  altogether  incorrect, 
and  their  apprehensions  in  almost  all 
cases  groundless.  Mental  sickness  or 
insanity,  like  physical  sickness  or  in- 
firmity, can  oftentimes  only  be  success- 
fully treated  in  a  hospital  devoted  to 
the  special  care  and  cure  of  such  dis- 
eases. After  some  familiarity  with  in- 
stitutions   for   the   treatment    of    the 


31  AN   OF  FORTY-FIVE.  '->:: 

insane,  I  am  thoroughly  convinced 
that  if  I  had  mental  sickness,  I  should 
prefer,  by  all  means,  to  place  myself 
under  the  care  of  those  who  have  the 
largest  experience  and  best  equipment 
for  my  relief  and  cure. 

When  thinking  of  an  insane  asylum, 
some  persons  only  have  in  mind  the 
wards  where  the  violent  and  incurable 
are  confined.  They  do  not  think  of  the 
wards  with  large  and  well-furnished 
parlors,  of  the  cultured  and  congenial 
companionship,  of  the  many  means  for 
diversion,  the  ample  grounds,  pleasant 
walks  and  favorable  surroundings 
which  are  so  much  better  fitted  to  aid 
in  the  recovery  of  those  under  treat- 
ment than  any  conditions  to  be  found 
in  the  ordinary  home. 

Where  the  stress  and  strain  attend- 
ing the  menopause  have  been  pro- 
nounced in  their  character,  for  some 
months  or  even  years  there  may  be  a 
tendency  to  mental  depression  at  the 
return  of  the  period  corresponding 
with  the  previous  menstrual  life,  but 
this    tendency    will    gradually     wear 


284  MAN   OF   FORTY-FIVE. 

away,    until    it    lias    entirely    disap- 
peared. 

After  this  period  of  stress  and  strain, 
both  physical  and  mental,  is  past,  the 
mind  emerges  from  the  mists  into  a 
clear  and  sunny  sky.  The  woman  no 
longer  tortures  herself  with  imaginary 
woes  ;  self-poise  and  self-confidence  re- 
turn, and  relieved  from  the  periodic 
infirmities  which  have  attended  her 
earlier  years,  the  woman  enters  upon  a 
period  of  serenity  and  repose,  and  even 
of  health  and  blessing  such  as,  per- 
chance, she  has  never  before  known. 
"With  the  full  consciousness  of  her  ma- 
ternal duties  completed  and  well  per- 
formed, she  is  now  prepared  to  bring 
to  others  that  intelligence,  counsel, 
encouragement  and  help  which  will 
crown  her  declining  years  with  a 
saintly  halo,  more  to  be  desired  than 
any  of  the  pleasures  which  passion 
affords. 


THE   END. 


OFFICES  OF  PUBLICATION 


IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

THEVIR  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1601  Real  Estate  Trust  Building 

PHILADELPHIA,  PA 


IN    ENGLAND 

THE  VIR  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

7  Imperial  Arcade,  Ludgate  Circus 

london,  e.  c 

Price,  4^. 


IN   CANADA 

WILLIAM    BRIGGS 

29-33  Richmond  Street  West 

TORONTO,  ONTARIO 


"What  a  Young  Boy  Ought 
to  Know." 

CONDENSED  TABLE  OP  CONTENTS. 

PART  I. 

God's  purpose  in  endowing  plants,  animals  and  man  with 
reproductive  power — The  question  of  the  origin  of  life  a 
natural  and  proper  one — Difference  between  creating  and 
making — How  God  now  creates  or  reproduces  the  flowers,  in- 
sects, fishes  and  animals — The  mamma  and  papa  plants  and 
the  baby  plants — The  mamma  and  papa  nature  in  the  stalk  of 
corn — The  two  natures  united  in  the  same  flower — Separated 
in  other  plants — The  office  of  the  wind  and  insects  in  fertiliz- 
ing the  flowers — The  mamma  and  papa  natures  united  in  the 
same  oyster — The  life  of  the  baby  oyster— The  two  natures 
separated  in  the  fishes — The  eggs  and  the  baby  fishes — How 
seeds  are  made  to  grow  and  how  eggs  are  hatched — The  beau- 
tiful lives  of  parent  birds — The  bird's  nest,  the  eggs  and  the 
baby  birds — Why  the  eggs  of  animals  may  not  be  exposed  in 
a  nest — The  nest  which  God  has  prepared  for  them — The 
hatching  of  the  egg,  or  the  birth  of  the  animal — The  creation 
of  Adam  and  Eve — God  endowed  man  with  power  similar  to 
his  creative  power — The  purity  of  parentage. 

PART  II. 

The  manner  in  which  the  reproductive  organs  are  injured  in 
boys  by  abuse — Comparative  anatomy,  or  points  of  resem- 
blance between  bodies  of  birds,  animals  and  man — Man  the 
only  animal  with  a  perfect  hand — With  the  hand  he  constructs, 
builds  and  blesses — With  the  hand  he  smites,  slays  and  injures 
others,  and  degrades  himself. 

PART   III. 

The  consequences  in  boys  of  the  abuse  of  the  reproductive 
organs — Need  of  proper  information — The  moral  effects  first  to 
manifest  themselves — How  secret  sin  affects  the  character  of 
boys — Effects  upon  the  body  and  the  nerves — Effects  upon 
the  brain  and  mind— The  physical  effects  that  follow — The 
boys  and  girls  of  to-day  will  determine  the  character  of  the 
next  generation,  the  nation  and  the  world  a  hundred  years 
hence. 

PARTS  IV.  and  V. 

How  boys  may  preserve  their  bodies  in  purity  and  strength 
-Our  duty  to  aid  others  to  avoid  pernicious  habits,  and  to 
retain  or  regain  their  purity  and  strength. 

PARTS  VI.  and  VII. 

How  purity  and  strength  may  be  measurably  regained. — 
The  age  of  adolescence  or  puberty  and  its  attendant  changes 
— The  passage  from  boyhood  to  manhood — Its  significance 
and  its  dangers. 

Price  $1.00  net,  post  free. 


Pure  Books  on  Avoided  Subjects. 


SELF   AND    SEX    SERIES. 


"What  a  Young  BojJ  Oughts  to  ^noto" 

By  SYLVANUS  STALL,  D.D. 


For  Boys  Under  Sixteen  Years  of  Age« 


WHAT  EMINENT  PEOPLE  SAY: 

THEODORE  L.  CUYLER,  D.D. 

" '  What  a  Young  Boy  Ought  to  Know '  ought  to  be  in 
every  home  where  there  is  a  boy.  You  deserve  the  thanka 
of  every  parent  in  the  land." 

JOSEPH  COOK,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

"  It  is  everywhere  suggestive,  inspiring  and  strategic  in  a 
degree,  as  I  think,  not  hitherto  matched  in  literature  of  its 
class." 

MRS.  MARY  A.  LIVERMORE,  LL.D. 

"  I  am  glad  to  commend  it.  The  short  chapters,  full  of 
physiological  truths,  which  all  children  ought  to  know,  at 
a  proper  age,  will  be  read  by  boys  without  awakening  a 
prurient  thought." 

MISS  JESSIE  A.  ACKERMAN. 

"Some  means  should  be  devised  whereby  the  public 
schools  could  place  this  book  as  a  free  gift  in  the  hands  of 
every  boy  as  a  standard  to  a  pure  manhood." 

JOHN  WILLIS  BAER. 

"  I  feel  confident  that  it  can  do  great  good,  and  I  mean 
that  my  boys  shall  have  the  contents  placed  before  them." 


Commendations  of  "  Young  Boy  " — Continued. 


CHARLES  L.  THOMPSON,  D.D. 

"It  is  indeed  what  boys  ought  to  know— the  failure  to 
know  which  has  been  the  cause  of  many  sorrows  and 
pains  and  penalties.  Why  was  not  this  book  written  cen- 
turies ago?" 

MRS.  ALICE  LEE  MOQUE" . 

"As  a  mother,  with  three  growing  boys  of  my  own 
resting  on  my  heart,  I  bless  you  for  your  brave  words  of 
warning  and  pray  that  the  good  seeds  planted  may  take 
root  in  the  hearts  of  all  your  youthful  readers.  Ignorance 
is  a  deadly  sin.  The  truth  properly  told  has  never  yet 
harmed  a  child  ;  silence,  false  shame  and  mystery  have 
corrupted  the  souls  and  bodies  of  untold  millions." 

JOSIAH  STRONG,  D.D. 

"A  foolish  and  culpable  silence  on  the  part  of  most 
parents  leaves  their  children  to  learn,  too  often  from 
vicious  companions,  sacred  truth  in  an  unhallowed  way. 
Your  book  is  most  reverent  and  will  inspire  reverence." 

MRS.  KATE  W.  BARRETT,  M.D.,D.Sc. 

"I  have  been  studying  methods  and  means,  looking 
to  the  bringing  about  of  such  an  understanding  of  the  sex 
question  as  is  portrayed  in  Dr.  Stall's  book,  for  the  past 
twenty-one  years,  and  I  unhesitatingly  say,  that  he  seems 
to  me  to  have  gotten  more  nearly  to  the  object  aimed  at, 
which  is  to  make  a  boy  feel  the  responsibility  of  the  poten- 
tiality of  the  father  within  him,  than  any  other  person 
I  know." 

BISHOP  JOHN  H.  VINCENT,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

"You  have  handled  with  great  delicacy  and  wisdom  an 
exceedingly  difficult  subject.  Your  work  has  been  well 
done." 

EDWARD  W.  BOK. 

"  It  has  appealed  to  me  in  a  way  which  no  other  book 
of  its  kind  has.  Other  books  have  told  other  things,  but 
you  have  compassed  the  whole  subject." 


PRICE,  $1.00  NET,  POST  FREE. 


"What  a  Young  Man  Ought 
to  Know." 

CONDENSED  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

STRENGTH. 

The  valueof  physical  strength — The  weak  man  handicapped 
— Three-fold  nature  of  man — Relation  of  the  physical,  intel- 
lectual and  moral — Impair  one,  you  injure  all — The  physical 
foundation — Man's  strong  sexual  nature — Sex  uality  strongly 
marked  in  all  great  men — Importance  of  manly  mastery  of 
sexual  nature — Personal  purity — Only  one  moral  standard  for 
men  and  women. 

WEAKNESS. 

Inherited  weakness — How  overcome — Acquired  weakness — 
How  produced — The  effects  of  secret  vice — What  should  be 
done — Losses  in  sleep — When  to  consult  a  physician — Dan- 
ger from  quacks  and  charlatans — What  are  normal  and  ab- 
normal losses — Medical  authorities  quoted — Subject  illus- 
trated— Important  directions. 

SOCIAL  VICE. 

Alarming  ignorance  concerning  the  diseases  which  accom- 
pany vice — Why  physicians  do  not  acquaint  their  patient3 
with  the  nature  of  these  diseases — Their  prevalence — All 
forms  of  venereal  disease  leave  terrible  results — Character 
and  consequences  of  gonorrhoea — Later  complications — Chor- 
dee,  stricture,  blindness,  etc. — How  healthy  brides  become 
early  and  permanent  invalids — Chancroid  and  chancre — The 
primary,  secondary  and  tertiary  forms  of  syphilis — The  be- 
ginning, progress  and  end — Can  it  ever  be  cured — May  the 
man  ever  marry — Effects  upon  wife  and  children. 

THE   REPRODUCTIVE  ORGANS. 

Their  purpose  and  prostitution — Marriage  a  great  blessing 
— Difference  between  creation  and  procreation — All  life  from 
the  seed  or  the  egg — The  reproduction  of  plants,  fishes,  birds 
and  animals  contrasted — An  interesting  study. 

MAN'S   RELATION    TO   WOMAN. 

Importance  of  a  right  relation  to  women — The  nature  of 
marriage — The  friends  and  foes  of  marriage — Who  should  not 
marry — The  selection  of  a  wife — Some  general  rules — Import- 
ance of  great  caution — Causes  of  unhappiness  in  married  life 
— Early  and  late  marriages. 

HINDRANCES   AND   HELPS. 

The  choice  of  companions,  books,  pictures,  amusement, 
recreations — Liquors  and  tobacco — Self-mastery — Right  aim 
in  life — Industry,  early  rising — The  influence  of  an  ennobling 
affection — Education — The  Sabbath,  the  Church,  and  the 
Bible. 


Price  $1.00  net,  per  copy,  post  free. 


"What  a  Young  fl[an  Ought  to  J[noW 

By  SYLVANUS  STALL,  D.D. 


WHAT  EMINENT  PEOPLE  SAY: 
FRANCIS    E.    CLARK,  D.D., 

FOUNDER  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  ENDEAVOR  SOCIETY,  SAYS: 

"Of  exceeding  value  to  every  youth  just  entering  upon 
manhood.  It  is  written  reverently  but  very  plainly,  and  I 
believe  will  save  a  multitude  of  young  men  from  evilfl 
unspeakable.' ' 

ETHELBERT  D.  WARFIELD,  L.L.D., 

PRESIDENT  OP  LAFAYETTE  COLLEGE,  SAYS  : 

"  I  have  examined  with  great  interest  and  satisfaction 
the  book,  '  What  a  Young  Man  Ought  to  Know.'  The 
6ubject  is  one  of  the  utmost  personal  and  social  import- 
ance, and  hitherto  has  not  been  treated,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  in  such  a  way  as  to  merit  the  commendation  of  the 
Christian  public." 

J.  WILBUR  CHAPMAN,  D.D., 

THE  EMINENT  EVANGELIST,  SAYS  : 

"  I  bear  willing  testimony  that  I  believe  this  book  ought 
to  be  in  the  hands  of  every  young  man  in  this  country." 

PAUL  F.  MUNDE,  M.D.,  LL.D., 

PROFESSOR  OF  GYNECOLOGY  IN  THE  NEW  YORK  POLY- 
CLINIC AND  AT  DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE,  SAYS: 

"  I  most  heartily  commend  not  only  the  principle  but  the 
execution  of  what  it  aims  to  teach.  It  is  a  relief  to  see  the 
question  so  well  handled." 

EUGENE  H.  PORTER,  M.D., 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  HOMEOPATHIC  MEDICAL  SOCIETY  OF  THB 
STATE  OF  NEW  YORK;  PROFESSOR  MATERIA  MEDICA,  NEW 
YORK  HOMEOPATHIC  MEDICAL  COLLEGE,  ETC.,  SAYS  : 

"We  should  especially  commend  the  volume  for  Ita 
reliability  in  statement,  and,  as  a  medical  man,  I  highly 
indorse  the  medical  teachings  of  the  book.  It  is  trust- 
worthy and  sound.  It  is  a  work  which  should  be  in  the 
hands  of  every  young  man." 


Commendations  of  "Young  Man" — Continued. 


EDWARD  BROOKS,  LL.D., 

IUPERINTENDENT  OF  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS,  PHILAD'A,  8AY3: 

*  You  have  treated  a  delicate  subject  with  great  delicacy 
o>  thought  and  expression,  and  at  the  same  time  have 
pt^jented  practical  information  of  inestimable  value  to 
whb  youth  of  the  country." 

FREDERICK  L.  CHAPMAN, 

EDITOR  OF  "THE  RAM'S  HORN,"  SAYS  i 

"  We  venture  to  say  that  the  personally  secret  life  of 
men  has  never  been  handled  more  delicately,  chastely, 
convincingly,  or  with  more  ennobling  force,  than  is  done 
in  this  book." 

FRANK  W.  OBER, 

EDITOR  OF  "  MEN,"  THE  INTERNATIONAL  PAPER  OP 
THE  Y.  M.  C  A. 

"  I  have  not  only  carefully  examined  the  book  myself, 
but  have  submitted  it  to  a  competent  physician,  who  has 
for  years  received  the  freest  confidence  of  young  men. 
The  chapters  on '  The  Choice  of  a  Wife'  and  on '  Marriage' 
are  especially  timely.  I  take  pleasure  in  commending  the 
book  heartily  and  unqualifiedly  to  young  men.  It  will 
save  many  a  young  fellow  from  the  blast  and  blight  of  a 
befouled  manhood,  wrecked  by  the  wretched  blunderings 
of  an  ignorant  youth." 

PRESS  NOTICES. 

"  One  of  the  best  treatises  of  the  sort  ever  published." 
—Congrrgationalist. 

"We  find  nothing  from  which  to  dissent,  but  much  to 
commend.  The  chapters  on  marriage  are  specially  to  be 
commended." — Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association. 

"The  day  has  come  for  plain,  delicate,  but  truthful 
words  on  subjects  treated  in  this  book." — Christian  Guide. 

"  Every  man  between  the  ages  of  18  and  40  ought  to 
read  this  book."— Lutheran  Leader. 

"The  dissemination  of  such  information  as  this  book 
contains  will  save  multitudes  of  men  from  paths  of  vice 
and  ruin."— Christian  Advocate. 


PRICE,  $1.00  NET,  POST  FREE. 


What  a  Young  Husband  Ought 
to  Know* 

BY  SYLVANUS  STALL,  D.D. 

CONDENSED  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PART  I. 

What  He  Ought  to  Know  Concerning  Himself. 
The  true  foundation  for  happiness  in  married  life — Physical, 
intellectual  and  sexual  differences  between  men  and  women — 
Each  complemental  to  the  other,  and  complete  only  when 
mated — The  three  theories  regarding  coition — The  correct 
theory — The  physical  cost  of  procreation — Illustrated  in  in- 
sects, animals  and  man — What  is  excess — Effects  of  marital 
continence — The  husband's  duty  to  his  wife — Physical  defects 
and  deficiencies  of  husband  or  wife— Misery  entailed  by  vice 
in  earlier  years — Effects  upon  wife — Upon  children — Purity 
and  fidelity. 

PART  II. 

What  He  Ought  to  Know  Concerning   His  Wife. 
i.  the  bride. 

Marriage  the  most  trying  event  in  a  woman's  life — Earliest 
mistake  which  most  young  husbands  make — Few  intelligent 
guardians  of  their  brides — Threefold  classification  of  women 
— Causes  of  differences — Wedding  joy — The  wave  cannot  re- 
main at  its  crest. 

II.  the  wife. 

Her  manifold  duties  as  wife,  mother  and  housekeeper — God 
has  fitted  her  for  her  sphere — The  mother-nature — Barrenness 
and  sterility — Physical,  social,  intellectual  and  moral  benefits 
of  motherhood  and  fatherhood — Aversion  and  evasion — God's 
purpose  in  marriage — Limitation  of  offspring — Marital  excess 
— The  wrongs  which  wives  suffer  because  of  ignorant  and  un- 
thinking husbands — Repellent  periods  in  the  life  of  woman, 
in.  the  mother. 

Purposed  and  prepared  parenthood — Conception — The  mar- 
vels of  foetal  life  and  growth — Changes  during  the  months  of 
gestation — The  husband's  duty  to  wife  and  offspring — What 
the  wife  has  a  ri^lit  to  expect  before  and  during  confinement 
— Ignorant,  unthinking  and  unsympathetic  husbands — The 
child  in  the  home — Keal  life  and  genuine  happiness — The 
mother  while  nursing — Protection  of  child  from  impure  nurses. 

PART  III. 
What  He  Ought  to  Know  Concerning  His  Children. 
Heredity — Prenatal  influences — Physical  conditionsprior  to 
and  at  conception — Stirpiculture — Essentials  of  seed,  soil  and 
care — "Longings,"  markings,  etc. — Can  sex  of  offspring  be 
governed  —  Cause  of  idiocy — Blindness,  etc. — The  right  to  be 
well-born — Parental  discipline  during  first  two  years — Duties 
during  childhood — Nursery  influences — Honest  answers  to 
honest  inquiries — How  to  secure  purity  in  thought  and  life  of 
children — Dangers  at  the  age  of  puberty — Child-companions 
and  child-loves — The  physical,  intellectual  and  moral  culture 
of  children. 


Price  $1.00  net,  post  free. 


"  Wh.at  a  Young  Husband  Ought  to  Know" 
BY  SYLVANUS  STALL,  D.D. 

WHAT  EMINENT  PEOPLE  SAY : 
CHAS.  M.  SHELDON,  D.D., 

AUTHOR    OF  "IN    HIS    STEPS,"   "MY  BROTHER'S    KEEPER," 
ETC.,  ETC.,  TOPEKA,  KANS. 

"  I  hope  its  message  may  be  used  for  the  bettering  of 
the  homes  of  the  world." 

FRANCIS  E.  CLARK,  D.D., 

FOUNDER  OF  THE  YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  SOCIETY  OF  CHRISTIAN 
ENDEAVOR,  AND  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  SOCIETY. 

"I  regard  Dr.  Stall's  latest  book  as  equal  to  the  others 
in  its  uclicate  but  plain-spoken  chapters  concerning  the 
facts  the  men  to  whom  it  is  addressed  ought  to  know." 

REV.  A.  C.  DIXON,  D.D., 

PASTOR  OF  HANSON  PLACE  BAPTIST  CHURCH,  BROOK- 
LYN, N.  Y. 

"  I  take  pleasure  in  commending  it  to  husbands,  young 
and  old.  The  vice  of  ignorance  on  these  delicate  but  im- 
portant subjects  has  done  much  to  increase  the  business 
of  divorce  courts  and  wreck  homes." 

EUGENE  H.  PORTER,  M.A.,  M.D., 

PROFESSOR  MATERIA  MEDICA,  NEW  YORK  HOMCEOPATHIC 
MEDICAL  COLLEGE;  PROFESSOR  DISEASES  OF  STOMACH 
AND  LIVER,  METROPOLITAN  POST-GRADUATE  SCHOOL; 
AUTHOR  OF  MANY  STANDARD  MEDICAL  WORKS,  AND 
EDITOR  OF  NORTH  AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  HOMUSOPATHY 

"  It  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  young  man  who 
contemplates  marriage.  It  is  a  sound  and  practical  vol- 
ume, and  deserves  a  wide  circulation." 

H.  J.  BOLDT,  M.D., 

PROFESSOR  OF  GYNECOLOGY,  NEW  YORK  POST-GRADUATE 
MEDICAL  SCHOOL  AND  HOSPITAL;  GYNECOLOGIST  TO  ST 
MARK'S  HOSPITAL;  GYNECOLOGIST  TO  THE  GERMAN  POL1- 
KLINIK. 

"  Its  possession,  and  following  it  in  practice  by  young 
husbands,  would  be  conducive  to  a  purer  life  and  more 
happiness." 


Commendations  of  "Young  Husband"— Continued. 


AMOS  R.  WELLS, 

MANAGING  EDITOR  OF  "CHRISTIAN  ENDEAVOR  WORLD." 

"  The  race  would  be  infinitely  stronger  In  body  and  soul 
if  all  husbands  would  obtain  this  book  and  follow  its 
precepts." 

CHAS.  L.  THOMPSON,  D.D., 

SECRETARY  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  OF  THE  PRESBYTE- 
RIAN CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 

"  Characterized  by  the  same  purity  of  tone,  wise  pre- 
sentation of  important  facts  and  high  Christian  purpose 
which  have  made  so  attractive  and  useful  the  other  books 
of  the  series." 

REV.  CHAS.  R.  ERDMAN, 

PASTOR  OF  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, GERMANTOWN.PA. 

"  I  most  heartily  congratulate  you  upon  the  successful 
accomplishment  of  so  difficult  and  delicate  a  task  in  the 
sacred  interests  of  the  home." 

MRS.  ALICE  LEE  MOQUE, 

AUTHOR  OF  "WOMAN:  HER  HEART,  SOUL  AND  BODY;" 
JOURNALIST  AND  PHILANTHROPIST. 

"  A  book  that  can  be  profitably  read  by  all  husbands." 
JOSIAH  STRONG,  D.D., 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  LEAGUE  FOR  SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

"  It  will  enable  many  young  husbands  to  learn  what 
they  ought  to  know  without  paying  the  high  tuition  fee 
exacted  in  the  school  of  experience." 

HON.   S.  M.  JONES, 

MAYOR  OF  TOLEDO,  OHIO. 

"  I  am  glad  to  say  that  my  study  of  it  indicates  that  you 
have  been  led  by  a  pure  love  for  your  kind  to  write  one 
of  the  most  helpful  and  valuable  books  that  it  has  been 
my  privilege  to  see  in  many  days." 


Price   $1.00,    Post   Free. 


What  a  Young  Girl  Ought 
to  Know. 

BY  MRS.  MARY  WOOD-ALLEN,  M.D. 
CONDENSED  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PART  I. 

The  origin  of  life — One  plan  in  ali  forms  of  life — How  plants 
grow  from  the  seed — They  feed  on  the  soil,  grow  and  mature 
— How  the  plant  reproduces  itself — The  flower,  the  pollen,  the 
pod,  the  seed — The  office  of  bees  and  insects  in  fertilization. 

PART  II. 

Fishes  and  their  young — The  parent  fishes  and  the  baby 
fishes — The  seeds  of  plants  and  eggs  of  fishes,  birds  and  ani- 
mals— How  fishes  never  know  their  baby  offspring — Warm- 
blooded animals — Lessons  from  the  birds — Their  nests,  eggs 
and  little  ones. 

PART   III. 

Animals  and  their  young — The  place  which  God  has  pre- 
pared for  their  young — Beginning  their  independent  life — 
Human  babies  the  most  helpless  and  dependent  of  all  creatures 
— The  relations  of  parent  and  child— The  child  a  part  of  each 
parent — Heredity  and  its  lessons. 

PART  IV. 
The  value  of  good  health — The  care  of  the  body — The  body 
a  temple  to  be  kept  holy — Girls  should  receive  their  instruction 
from  their  mothers — The  body  the  garment  which  the  soul 
wears — Effects  of  thoughts  upon  life  and  character — Value  of 
good  companions,  good  books  and  good  influences — What  it 
is  to  become  a  woman. 


Price  $1.00  net,  post  free. 


"Iflftot  a  Young  [{M  Ought  to  ^nolw  ■ 

By  MRS.  MARY  WOOD-ALLEN,  M.D. 

Superintendent  of  the  Purity  Department,  W.  C.  T.  U.  Authot 

oftk  The  Man  Wonderful  in  the  House  Beautiful," 

"  Marvels  of  Our  Bodily  Dwelling,"  "  Child 

Confidence   Rewarded"   "  Teaching 

Truth?   "Almost  a  Man;' 

"Almost  a  Woman." 


For  Girls  Under  Sixteen  Years  of  Age. 


WHAT  EMINENT  PEOPLE  SAY: 
FRANCES  E.  WILLARD,  LL.D., 

LATE  PRESIDENT  WORLD'S  AND  NATIONAL   WOMEN'S 
CHRISTIAN  TEMPERANCE  UNION. 

"  I  do  earnestly  hope  that  this  book,  founded  on  a  strictly 
scientific  but  not  forgetting  a  strong  ethical  basis,  may  be 
well  known  and  widely  read  by  the  dear  girls  in  their 
teens  and  the  young  women  in  their  homes." 

MRS.  ELIZABETH  B.  GRANNIS, 

PRESIDENT  NATIONAL  CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE  FOR  THE  PROMO- 
TION OF  SOCIAL  PURITY. 

"These  facts  ought  to  be  judiciously  brought  to  the 
intelligence  of  every  child  whenever  it  asks  questions 
concerning  its  own  origin.  I  have  greatly  enjoyed  the 
simplicity  of  the  statements  and  illustrations." 

MRS.  EMILY  D.  BOUTON, 

AUTHOR  OF  "  HEALTH  AND  BEAUTY,"    "  LIFE'S  GATEWAYS 
AND  HOW  TO    WIN   REAL  SUCCESS,"  ETC.,  ETC. 

"  No  words  are  too  strong  to  use  in  expressing  my  appre- 
ciation of  its  excellence." 

MRS.  HARRIET  LINCOLN  COOLIDGE, 

EDITOR  OF  "  TRAINED  MOTHERHOOD  ;"  AUTHOR  OF  "  TALKS 
TO  MOTHERS,"  "  THE  MODEL  NURSERY,"  ETC.,  ETC. 

"It  is  a  book  that  mothers  and  daughters  ought  to  own, 
and  mothers  who  do  not  understand  the  best  way  to  instruct 
their  girls  in  the  proper  care  of  the  body,  will  find  it  clearly 
shown  in  this  little  volume." 


Commendations  of  "  Young  Girl " — Continued. 


MRS.  KATHARINE  L.  STEVENSON, 

CORRESPONDING  SECRETARY  NATIONAL  W.  C.  T.  U. 

"  The  book  is  strong,  direct,  pure,  as  healthy  as  a  breeza 
from  the  mountain-top.  It  cannot  fail  to  bring  inspiration 
and  a  new  ideal  of  life  to  the  young  girl  who  may  read  it. 
It  is  a  book  which  any  mother  may  safely  put  into  the 
hands  of  her  daughter." 

MRS.  ISABELLA  MACDONALD  ALDEN, 

"PANSEY,"  THE  EMINENT  AITIIOR  AND  WRITER. 

"'What  a  Young  Girl  Ought  to  Know'  is  a  book  that 
mothers  cannot  afford  to  be  without.  It  is  just  the  book 
needed  to  teach  what  most  people  do  not  know  how  to 
teach,  being  scientific  yet  simple  and  plain-spoken,  yet 
delicate.  'Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,'  said  the  Master; 
and  blessed  must  they  be  who  enforce  this  teaching." 

MRS.  E.  M.  WHITTEMORE, 

FOUNDER  OF  THE  DOOR  OF  HOPE. 

"  May  God  bless  this  book  to  young  mothers  in  aiding 
them  to  more  fully  realize  their  solemn  responsibility  in 
the  training  of  their  children,  and  in  like  purity  enable 
them  thus  to  unfold  all  necessary  knowledge  pertaining 
to  that  which  naturally  appears  so  mysterious  to  the  mind 
of  a  child.  By  so  doing  God  will  be  honored  and  the 
little  ones  spared  later  on  from  receiving  erroneous  and 
evil  impressions  from  associates,  which  so  repeatedly 
result  in  such  disastrous  experiences  and  sorrow." 

MISS  GRACE  H.  DODGE, 

THE  PHILANTHROPIST. 

"They  are  just  what  are  needed  for  many  to  use  for  the 
young  people  in  their  care.  Dr.  Mary  Wood- Allen  I  have 
long  known  and  have  myself  learned  great  lessons  from 
her.  I  know  of  no  one  who  writes  or  speaks  on  these 
great  subjects  with  more  womanly  touch, nor  with  deeper 
reverence.  When  I  listen  to  her  I  feel  that  she  has  been 
inspired  by  a  Higher  Power." 


PRICE,  $1.00  NET,  POST  FREE. 


Address  all  Orders  to 

THE  VIR  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

Full  address  on  first  advertising  page. 


What  a  Young  Woman  Ought 
to  Know. 

:  -.'•-.  ::  -al.:_zv,  ::  r. 

pakt  : 


:::;      :  :r-:    .-    -   -±z- 
:  .-t  i   :_  1  _  — "  -    .  -  -  r  -    : 


part  :::. 


Pj-i-c*  Sl.OO  net 3 post  fr*e- 


11 W  hat  a  Young  Woman  Ought  to  Know" 

BY  MRS.  MARY  WOOD-ALLEN,  M.D. 


WHAT  EMINENT  PEOPLE  SAY: 

MARGARET  WARNER  MORLEY. 

"  The  series  of  books  to  which  this  belongs  is  one  of  the 
best  signs  of  the  age.  There  is  an  awful  need  for  the 
book,  and  it  does  what  it  has  undertaken  to  do  better 
than  anything  of  the  kind  I  have  ever  read." 

MRS.  MAY  WRIGHT  SEWALL. 

"  I  am  profoundly  grateful  that  a  subject  of  such  in- 
formation to  young  women  should  be  treated  in  a  man- 
ner at  once  so  noble  and  so  delicate  that  any  pure-minded 
teacher  or  mother  may  read  or  discuss  its  pages  with 
young  girls  without  the  slightest  chance  of  wounding  the 
most  delicate  sensibilities,  or  by  being  misunderstood." 

MRS.  MARY  LOWE  DICKINSON. 

"Any  young  woman  knowing  all  that  this  volume 
teaches,  has  an  essential  foundation  for  whatever  other 
knowledge  she  may  acquire." 

ELIZABETH  CADY  STANTON. 

"  It  is  a  grave  mistake  for  parents  to  try  to  keep  their 
children  ignorant  of  the  very  questions  on  which  they 
should  have  scientific  information.  The  many  facts  you 
state  are  not  only  important  for  a  knowledge  of  social 
science,  but  involve  good  health  and  morals." 

LILLIAN   M.  N.   STEVENS. 

"  There  is  great  need  of  carefully,  delicately  written 
books  upon  the  subjects  treated  of  in  this  series.  lam 
gratefully  glad  that  the  author  has  succeeded  so  well, 
and  I  trust  great  and  enduring  good  will  be  the  result." 


Commendations  of  "Young  Woman  "-Cob/mW. 


HELEN  CAMPBELL. 

"I  cannot  speak  too  warmly  of  your  invaluable  series. 
There  is  hardly  a  woman  in  America  so  thoroughly  qual- 
ified by  education,  long  experience,  deep  sympathies, 
and,  most  excellent  of  all  gifts,  as  deep  common  sense, 
to  meet  the  growing  need,  or  rather  the  growing  sense  of 
need." 

CHARLES  N.  CRITTENTON. 

"  The  frequent  excuse  which  parents  give  for  not  en- 
lightening their  children  on  these  most  important  points 
is  that  they  have  never  known  how  to  do  so.  This 
excuse  can  no  longer  be  considered  valid.  Armed  with 
Dr.  Mary  Wood-Allen's  '  What  a  Young  Woman  Ought  to 
Know,'  and  Dr.  Sylvanus  Stall's  '  What  a  Young  M.m 
Ought  to  Know,'  they  will  be  able  to  guide  their  children 
over  the  dangerous  period  of  puberty.  The  most  delicate 
subjects  are  handled  with  scientific  thoroughness  and 
exquisite  delicacy." 

ELISABETH   ROBINSON   SCOVIL. 

"'What  a  Young  Woman  Ought  to  Know'  is  char- 
acterized by  that  purity  of  tone  and  delicay  of  treatment 
which  distinguishes  all  the  books  written  by  Dr.  Mary 
Wood-Allen." 

MRS.  MATILDA  B.  CARSE. 

"  As  a  mother  I  can  truly  say  that  my  heart  goes  out 
to  you  in  endorsement  of  this  book.  It  is  pure  and  in- 
structive on  the  delicate  subjects  that  mean  so  much  to 
our  daughters,  to  their  future  as  homekeepers,  wives 
and  mothers,  and  to  the  future  generations.  It  can  but 
create  a  more  reverent  ideal  of  life  in  every  girl  who 
reads  it,  and  I  wish  every  daughter  in  the  land  could 
leap  of  its  benefit." 

MARY  EVANS. 

"  The  author  has  shown  tact  and  good  sense  in  blend- 
ing instruction  upon  the  special  facts  of  womanhood  with 
the  general  rules  of  right  living." 


WHAT  A  YOUNG  WIFE 

OUGHT  TO  KNOW 

By  MRS.  EMMA  F.  A.  DRAKE,  M.D. 

Condensed  Table  of  Contents 

Husband   and  Home. 

The  choice  of  a  husband — One  worthy  of  both  love  and  re- 
spect—Real characteristics  necessary— Purity  vs.  "wild  oats" 
—What  shall  a  young  wife  expect  to  be  to  her  husband  ?— His 
equal,  but  not  his  counterpart— His  helpmeet— Wifehood  and 
motherhood— Should  keep  pace  with  his  mental  growth— Trous- 
seau and  wedding  presents— The  foolish  and  ruinous  display  at 
weddings— Wedding  presents  and  unhappiness — Wise  choice  of 
furniture — The  best  adornments  for  the  home. 
The  Marital  Relations. 

The  marital  state  should  be  the  most  holy  of  sanctuaries- 
Its  influence  upon  character — Modesty— Reproduction  the  primal 
purpose— Love's  highest  plane— The  right  and  wrong  of  mar- 
riage— The  wrongdoings  of  good  men. 
Parenthood. 

Preparation  for  motherhood— Motherhood  the  glory  of  wom- 
anhood—Maternity  productive  of  health— Clothing— Exerciser- 
Baths,  etc.,  etc. — The   child   the   expression  of  the   mother's 
thoughts — The  five  stages  of  prenatal  culture. 
Preparation  for  Fatherhood. 

Questions  which  test  the  fitness  of  young  men  for  marriage 

Many  young  men  of  startling  worth — Effects  of  bad  morals 

and  wayward  habits — Tobacco  and  alcoholics — Attaining  the  best 
— The  father  reproduced  in  his  children. 

Antenatal  Infanticide. 

The  moral  responsibility  of  parents  in  heredity — The  mother's 
investment  of  moulding  power— Parents  workers  together  with 
God— Ailments  during  expectant  motherhood— Maternity  a 
normal  state — Development  of  the  fcetus— Minuteness  of  the 
germ  of  human  life— Changes  which  take  place— Life  present 
the  moment  conception  takes  place— The  sin  of  tampering  with 
the  work  of  the  Infinite. 

The  Little  One. 

Baby's  wardrobe— The  question  that  comes  with  fluttering 
signs  of  life— Importance  of  wise  choice  of  material  and  style 
of  dress — Choice  of  physician  and  nurse  of  real  consequence — 
The  birth  chamber— Surroundings  and  after-care  of  the  mother 
— The  care  of  the  baby— The  responsibilities  and  joys  of  mother- 
hood—The mother  the  baby's  teacher— Common  ailments  of 
children  and  how  to  treat  them— Guarding  against  vice— The 
training  of  children— Body-building— Helps  for  mothers. 


Price  $1.00  net,  post  free. 


BOO^S 


BY 

■■■■miiE'iHn. 


Sylvanus  Stall,  D.D. 


Five-Minute  Object  Sermons  to  Children. 

"  Far  better  than  Newton's,  the  anecdotes  and  subjects  of 
which  have  long  since  become  common  property.  Many  of  the 
subjects  are  very  fresh  and  telling." — New  York  Evangelist. 

Cloth,  253  pp.     Price,  $1.00,  post  free. 

Talks  to  the  King's  Children. 

"  The  Rev.  Dr.  Sylvanus  Stall  is  one  of  the  best  preachers 
for  young  people  in  the  American  pulpit.  His  '  Five-Minute 
Object  Sermons  '  to  children  was  an  ideal  book  in  its  class.  The 
present  volume  is  a  second  series  of  the  same  kind,  and  will  be 
found  to  have  no  less  point  and  charm  than  the  volume  pub- 
lished two  years  ago." — New  York  Independent. 

Cloth,  249  pp.     Price,  $1.00,  post  free. 

Methods  of  Church  Work. 

"It  is  stimulating,  helpful,  worth  its  weight  in  gold  to  any 
minister  who  wishes  to  accomplish  anything  for  the  kingdom 
of  Christ." — New  York  Christian  Intelligencer. 

Cloth,  304  pp.     Price,  $1.50,  post  free. 

Bible  Selections  for  Daily  Devotion. 

The  most  spiritual  and  helpful  portions  of  the  entire  Bible 
arranged  in  the  order  of  the  original  text.  Comprises  about 
one-third  of  the  whole  Bible. 

Christian  Advocate,  Pittsburg:  "That  there  has  been  a 
preat  falling  off  in  the  good  old  custom  of  daily  family  worship, 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  Just  how  much  of  this  deplorable  con- 
dition is  due  to  the  difficulty  of  hastily  selecting  Scriptural  pas- 
sages suited  to  the  service,  it  might  be  difficult  to  determine. 
Hut  fully  persuaded  that  this  is  an  obstacle  of  considerable  mo- 
ment, Dr.  Stall,  after  some  three  years'  work,  has  selected  a 
series  of  365  devotional  readings  from  Genesis  to  Revelation." 

Full  flexible  morocco,  divinity  circuit,  gold  on  red  edges,  price, 
#2.50.     Cloth,  i2mo.,  686  pages.     Price,  gi.oo,  post  free. 

Pastor's  Pocket  Record. 

(Undenominational.) 
"  Its  departments   cover  everything  a   minister  wishes  to 
record."—  IV.  F.  Crafts,  D.D. 

20  Departments.     184  pp.,  Levant  morocco.    Price,  75  cents. 


ADDRESS  ALL  ORDERS  TO 

THE  VIR  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 

Full  address  on  first  advertising  page. 


Mrs.  Mary  Wood-Allen,  M.D. 

"  Marvels  of  Our  Bodily  Dwelling." 

This  book  teaches  the  young  Physiology  and  Hygiene,  by 
metaphor,  parable,  and  allegory  in  a  most  charming  way.  For 
use  in  the  school  and  the  home.  i2mo.,  cloth,  275  pp.,  #1.10, 
post  free. 

"The  Birth  Chamber." 

A  supplementary  chapter  to  the  "  Marvels  of  Our  Bodily 
Dwelling."  It  contains  the  scientific  facts  of  special  physi- 
ology, written  in  Dr.  Mary  Wood-Allen's  own  delicate  style  of 
teaching  the  important  truths  concerning  the  origin  of  life. 
Price,  10  cents,  post  free. 

"  Child  Confidence  Rewarded." 

Designed  to  aid  mothers  in  guiding  the  first  outgoings  of  the 
child-mind  concerning  the  origin  of  life,  so  as  to  preserve  the 
coming  men  and  women  in  truth  and  purity.  Price,  10  cents, 
post  free. 

"Teaching  Truth." 

Addressed  to  mothers,  and  designed  to  teach  more  exalted 
ideas  concerning  God's  great  gift  of  fatherhood  and  mother- 
hood. Its  sweet  purity  is  like  the  breath  of  a  May  morning. 
Price,  25  cents,  post  free. 

"Almost  a  Man." 

Very  valuable  to  mothers,  teachers,  and  all  who  have  to  do 
■with  boys  of  twelve  and  fourteen  years  of  age.  It  will  prove  a 
blessing  and  a  help  to  all  who  read  it.  Price,  25  cents,  post 
free. 

"Almost  a  Woman." 

Girls  have  long  been  wanting  a  book  written  by  Dr.  Wood- 
Allen  to  correspond  with  the  one  by  the  same  author  for  Boys. 
This  booklet  meets  this  demand.  Mothers  will  fiud  this  just 
what  they  have  been  wanting  to  put  into  the  hands  of  their 
daughters.     Price,  25  cents,  post  free. 

"Baby's  Firsts." 

A  valuable  book  on  the  physical  care  of  the  babe  from  the  time 
of  its  arrival  to  the  beginning  of  the  second  year.  It  is  a  boon  to 
the  mother  of  moderate  means,  as  it  tells  how  to  make  many  of  the 
Bmal!  things  which  add  to  the  baby's  comfort  at  small  cost.  Price, 
35  cents,  post  free. 


OFFICES  OF  PUBLICATION 


IN   THE   UNITED    STATES 

THE  VIR  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
1601  Real  Estate  Trust  Building 

PHILADELPHIA,  PA 


IN    ENGLAND 

THE  VIR  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

7  Imperial  Arcade,  Ludgate  Circus 

LONDON,  E.  C 

Price,  4s. 


IN    CANADA 

WILLIAM    BRIGGS 

39-33  Richmond  Street  West 

TORONTO,  ONTARIO 


c 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


a.  jw* 


is 


- 


REC'D  YRL 


i-O 


1  0  2002 


=3  U 


f  £?      u_      1>« 


•'•JllLJyA 


^•V-.       V„, 


1       *J 


58   00015 


430 


^UIBRARYQ^ 


^OJITVD-JO^ 


^OFCALIFOfiV 


AWE-UNIVERJ/a 


AW 


n|     i( 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


<<0F 


AA    000  390  711 


